Sweet Dreams, Inuyasha
by Hennyo-Ryu7
Summary: The reality of love, malice, and pure hatred are rawly exposed..
1. Little Thoughts

Kagome awoke from her rather irritable sleep in the tent her and the gang had been sharing to sit up and do nothing other than be bored. 'Ugh... why can't I fall asleep!' she thought angrily to herself. Sigh She figured some food would do the trick, she was rather hungry. So, in an attempt to cure her insomnia, she reached over to her dark hole of a backpack to see what sort of remedies it may provide.

"Hmm .Now let me see-" she unzipped the main compartment and started rummaging through a mass of female accessories, and, to her dismay, found nothing of edibility. "No...No...Dang it!" She grumbled as she continued to search for some type of food. "Didn't I pack any kind of-" She was cut off by the voice of a grumbling hanyou, who looked rather sick while he slept. Inuyasha tossed and turned in his corner of the tent, every now and then showing his youkai features slightly.

She noticed that he was without a doubt having a nightmare, seeing how he was talking in his sleep as he tossed and turned. "Ugh. Curse it. N, no. Uhhh." he mumbled, in the middle of a dream. Kagome looked over at Inuyasha, even though she knew she could probably do nothing to help him, but oh well. She felt sorry for him; he had been acting rather strange lately and she had no idea why. "He must be dreaming," she said to herself. ".Probably about Kikyo." She spoke with a frown, much to her disappointment. That disappointment however was soon to be shattered as she heard the hanyou's next few words, and all the while he tossed and turned.

"Kag. Ka. Kagome... don't...doh, mmm." Kagome blushed slightly, imagining what it exactly is that youkai dream about. 'What the? He's dreaming about me!' The young miko's mind wandered off to gutter land as some more or less pleasing thoughts came to her head. 'What could he possibly... No way. I, no way. He doesn't.' Kagome sat thinking to herself trying to get her mind out of the gutter; when suddenly all silence was broken as Inuyasha awoke full youkai and in a rage, eyes red aglow.

"STAY AWAY FROM Kagome YOU PATHETIC LITTLE PUP!" He screamed at the top of his lungs as everyone instantly sat up at the alarming noise. Miroku, who stood up and grabbed his staff, was the first to say anything. "Inuyasha, what's wrong! What happened to Kagome;" he asked alarmingly as his eyes searched the room for the young miko. "What the," he said in realization as he noticed that Kagome was just fine. "She's right there! What are you screaming about!"

Inuyasha stood in the middle of the tent, full youkai and breathing really hard; all the while spinning around cracking his claws as if to look for an attacker. The others tried to calm him down, but to no avail. Miroku however made a second attempt. "Inuyasha, what are you screaming about?" Inuyasha spun around at lightning speed in Miroku's direction, quickly looking all over the tent and beginning to get even angrier. "WHERE IS Sesshomaru!" He demanded, confusing an already confused monk. Miroku thought for a moment, and came to the conclusion that Inuyasha simply had a mere night terror.

"Inuyasha, calm yourself. Sesshomaru is not here; you were just having a bad dream. Inuyasha could feel his body getting hot. His desires and instincts almost completely took over him; when luckily Kagome tried her hand at calming down the enraged youkai. She did her best to walk over to him, in the not so big tent they were staying in, and spoke. "Inuyasha; SIT." Thud

Inuyasha looked up from his spot on the ground, where of he had just recently been sat via a young archer in training named Kagome. "Hey what the heck, whench! Would you stop with that already!" he said obviously quite annoyed. Kagome looked at Inuyasha rather angrily. "Hmph! You've certainly got a lot of nerve! If I hadn't sat you we all very well may have been dead! You know that!" she reasoned. "Now if you don't mind, would you please explain to us what was going on? And, what were you screaming my name for! You've sure got some talking to do!"

Inuyasha 'keh'd' and looked over his shoulder, the way he always does when he doesn't want to talk to Kagome. He thought for a moment whether or not to tell her what his dream was about, and came to the conclusion that it was none of her business. "Never mind, it was just a dream. That's all. Go back to sleep." He said, quite obviously not giving the whole answer.

But, for some reason, even Inuyasha knew that Kagome wasn't going to accept that as an explanation; and of course, she didn't. "Oh, so you think that we're just going to forget about it like that huh? Well, even if I cared to know the reason why you sounded so mad, which I don't, I think we have a right to know why you just woke us up like that."

Miroku added to the argument, which he already sided with Kagome on. "Yes Inuyasha, I agree with Kagome. We do have a right to know why you woke us up in the middle of the night." Inuyasha stood up, and turned around; surprising the others. However, Sango called out to him before he decided to make another move.

"Hold, Inuyasha! What do you think you're doing!" Inuyasha made no movement. He just sniffed around, as if to look for a specific scent; all the while becoming annoyed at his allies' constant bickering. "Would you guys stop yappin' at me for a minute! I said forget about it." However the hanyou could tell that, yet again, they did not accept his choice of phrase. But he didn't care; there was an odd scent in the air and it was beginning to smell a lot like Sesshomaru.

Kagome however became annoyed at the fact that Inuyasha was completely ignoring them in their demands for what he was so mad about. "Inuyasha, what are you doing?" The silver haired hanyou, who once again completely ignored Kagome, turned towards Shippo.

"Hey, brat, you smell that?" Shippo looked up at Inuyasha who suddenly sounded a lot more serious than before. Miroku suddenly became a little more serious as well; when he heard a phrase similar to 'do you smell that'. Whenever Inuyasha smelled something peculiar, it always meant trouble.

"What do you smell, Inuyasha?" he asked in an alert, concerned voice; which was replied to by an even more serious voice of a hanyou who knew that danger was now quite possible. "It's Sesshomaru." He said quite seriously. Everyone's hearts skipped a beat as Inuyasha spoke to them the absolute truth. Miroku wanted to be certain though.  
"Are you sure, Inuyasha?" who was responded to by a nod. He then turned to Shippo. "Shippo, do you detect the scent of Sesshomaru as well?" Shippo looked up Miroku. "Yes, I'm positive." He said in assurance. Everyone quickly made up their minds as their instincts began to make their moves. Inuyasha grabbed Tetsusaiga and bolted out the door, who was followed by Kagome whom grabbed her bow and quiver, after which of course was followed by Sango, Miroku, Kirara, and Shippo.

They all began to run out towards the scent, or at least they followed Inuyasha who knew where the scent was. While they ran, Kagome decided to let go whatever it was that Inuyasha was so mad about and talk to him later. He'd tell her. Or at least she hoped he'd tell her. In any case, just about the only logical thing to do now was to follow Inuyasha and the others to where ever it was that Sesshomaru supposedly was.

Inuyasha ran at about one twentieth of his top speed, as to allow Kirara keep up with him. (Who was carrying Miroku and Sango, not to mention a rather tiny kitsune on her back.) They had just begun to accelerate when Kagome ran out of breath, and called out to Inuyasha. "Inuyasha! Wait! Don't leave me back here!"

Inuyasha stopped and turned to Kirara and motioned for her to continue on while he grabbed Kagome. After a short exchange of growls in an unknown tongue, Inuyasha leapt in the opposite direction to Kagome's side and bent down for her so she could fall on his back. He became annoyed. "Oi, Kagome. Why didn't you tell me you were tired? I would have carried you from the start y'know."

Kagome felt a bit angry, but then looked at Inuyasha and remembered that he was unaware that she was having a hard time sleeping that night. "Sorry," she managed to say in an extremely tired voice as she literally fell out cold on Inuyasha's back. Inuyasha was about to respond to her unnecessary apology, when he detected that her scent became so gentle that she must have been asleep. A 'feh' was heard as Inuyasha darted off towards Kirara and the others while making sure to hold on tight to Kagome; due to her being asleep.

On the way he thought to himself. 'I wonder if I made her so mad that she got tired? Oh, great.' He continued to think of other such reasons to himself which he later decided were all incorrect and unimportant; he knew Kagome too well. But in the current situation, it didn't matter. Because he no longer could see Kirara and the others, plus Sesshomaru's scent became even stronger. All he could do now was run head-on into battle.

Eventually Inuyasha caught up to Kirara and the others, and began to speed up even after he matched Kirara's speed. Inuyasha came to the conclusion that there was no reason to endanger the others, especially knowing that he very well may transform into his full youkai form during his well prepared fight with his older brother. He looked back at them and gave a warning.

"Kirara, you keep the others as far away from the battle as possible. I don't want anyone to get hurt in our fight." Kirara growled in agreement, but Miroku and Sango had some other things to say. Miroku was the first to protest. "Inuyasha, do you think it not foolish as to leave your allies in combat behind when you yourself may not be able to defeat Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha simply continued to run, ignoring the monk's logical argument. Miroku called out once more, this time sounding more commanding than as to ask.

"Well, I do not care to your opinion on the matter. You are quite obviously simply angry about our recent quarrel." Inuyasha came to a sudden stop, not even slightly bothering Kagome in her sleep. He turned around, and Kirara got close to him to stop as well. Inuyasha looked at Miroku. "Listen you lecherous poor excuse for a monk; I'm about to fight Sesshomaru, remember?" Inuyasha spoke as if to tell Miroku to recall something.

And when the priest did not respond, due to confusion, he asked of Inuyasha's reasoning. "What do you mean, Inuyasha? Since when did battling your brother become something out of the ordinary?" An irritated hanyou looked Miroku straight in the eye; and emphasized what he meant. "You dope. Don't you remember the last time I fought Sesshomaru?"

Something finally 'clicked' inside of Miroku's memory. And he said something, which was probably not the best thing to say, but hey, Miroku's an idiot! "Oh! You mean you do not wish to be defeated in front of Kagome like before!" Inuyasha could feel his blood beginning to boil, and Miroku, being the moron that he is, continued to add to his thought. "Like that time where-" He was cut off by a rather irritable hanyou's fist connecting to his skull.

A lump formed on Miroku's head as he began to ask why he had been struck. "Inuyasha, I trust you have a good reason for hitting me just now." He said sounding rather annoyed. Shippo and Sango however where chuckling to themselves on Kirara's back; for they understood Inuyasha's reasoning.

Miroku turned to Sango, and began to speak to her instead of Inuyasha. "Lady Sango, surely there is something of knowledge that you have acquired and I have missed?" Sango stopped chuckling and got off Kirara. She looked at him for a moment, and decided that he really didn't know what Inuyasha was talking about. So she explained it to him. "Miroku, I see you have failed to recall Inuyasha's most previous battle with Sesshomaru." She began. "Sesshomaru seemed to make it clear that he wanted to see Inuyasha transform, and that is probably what he will do this time if our guess is correct."

Miroku gazed at Sango, even more so indicating his stupidity. My apologies, Lady Sango. Did you speak just now?" He had made the mistake of thinking lecherous thoughts while observing Sango instead of listening to her words of wisdom. Which really seemed to make Sango mad. She grabbed Hiraikotsu and smashed him in the head, (putting him out cold) and looked at Inuyasha.

"Don't worry. I'll look after him and Kagome; you go fight with Sesshomaru." Inuyasha nodded in confirmation and thanked the young youkai exterminator. As he began to take his leave, Sango said one final thing. "Take Kirara with you, you can send her back to us just in case for some reason you need our help."

Inuyasha about-faced, crossed his arms, and 'keh'd', but none the less motioned for an original form Kirara to hop onto his shoulder. And as he began to leap off in Sesshomaru's direction, he said one final word of thanks and warning to Sango. "Thanks; but Kagome had better be all right when I get back, or it's on you."

And with that, Inuyasha leapt off towards the open plane where of he expected to see Sesshomaru.

Well that's my first chapter! Not too much romance yet, but don't worry, it'll get better in time. Please R&R!


	2. I Like the Fun Ones

Hi again. I'm sure none have you have reviewed yet because I'm writing this before I got any reviews.

Inuyasha leapt through the rest of the forest that he was going through on his way to fight his elder brother. He could feel an adrenaline rush begin to build, and the excitement of battle coming upon him. He never actually told anyone, but it was true. He loved to fight, especially in near death situations.

It seemed rather pointless though lately. No one was a challenge for him anymore, except for those rare occasions that he got an opportunity to test his skills against his rival, the leader of the Youkai Wolves. The only problem when he fought with him though (Koga, in case any of you haven't taken the time to watch the best show on earth) was that it always ended peacefully thanks to that meddling Kagome. But no matter, he knew he was on his way to a duel that would be most enjoyable.

He seemed to know why he had a sudden urge for battle lately; he noticed it the first time or so when he transformed into his full youkai state; or so he thought. Ever since then, he loved it; the feel of his claws massaging flesh, the scent of warm blood on his hands, the joy of battle! His instincts told him that nothing was better, or at least when ever he transformed.

When he was in his hanyou state, all he really cared about was protecting Kagome, killing Naraku, and collecting the rest of the shards of the Shikon jewel. That's all that seemed to matter, besides the fact that he wanted to use the jewel to become a full-fledged youkai at all times. But none of that was important now, he thought to himself. He was on his way to fight with Sesshomaru and he would enjoy every bit of it- even if he thought that he might die.

On his way, he decided to make the trip a bit of an enjoyable one- even thought it would most likely be a five minute jog to him, he was feeling a bit bored and decided to have some fun. He was dashing along in the underbrush when a smirk crept its way on to his face, and he leapt into a tree and proceeded from there. The tree was about 145 feet high, and he was at about the top of it when he pushed off effortlessly, not even beginning to feel the tension from his legs. His hair and kimono flapped in the wind, as he looked upon the forest that he was so high above. After spending about 20 seconds or so in the air he landed in an open spot towards the exit of the forest. He began running faster and faster as he enjoyed the feel of the moving air that he created as he moved. The winds picked up behind him and seemed to howl due to how fast he was running, encouraging him to go on. Kirara held on tightly, for she knew that nothing would stop Inuyasha from achieving his destination. Inuyasha spoke to himself feeling suddenly bit nervous about what he was sub-consciously thinking. "Why am I feeling so happy all of a sudden?" he had 'snapped out of it' and was realizing that it would be foolish not to be serious at a time like this. He began to become a little angry, seeing how his and his friends' lives could be on the line at any given moment, but yet deep inside of himself there was still a voice that cried out to him and commanded him to fight, and enjoy it! Inuyasha grew even angrier with himself. "How could I be such an idiot!" he scolded. "There's no way that I can win against Sesshomaru if I keep acting like this!" Inuyasha became a bit worried, and he stopped to think for a moment, then decided to stand where he was and scold himself. The poor hanyou began to wrestle with his emotions, wondering why he had such an urge for battle; mabey something was missing in his life, which caused such violent tendencies? He couldn't put his finger on it, but he knew that something was not right. He began to think of all of his latest past events, about all the things he had done recently. He thought about all of the main points in his life. 'Mabey it's just because my youkai blood has awakened now.' He thought. Of course he knew that that wasn't the real answer, but what was it? He thought more and more about the void that seemed to take up so much of his heart, it was like a vacuum, sucking the very soul and joy out of him. Then an idea came to his head. It was such a powerful thought, that it seemed to haunt him everywhere he went in his mind. He couldn't get away from it, it was one of those sub-conscious thoughts of which he lacked the power to just toss aside and throw away. Was the void, perhaps, in the shape of... love? Is it possible that since Kikyo's demise he felt the need to love someone? Then an even more difficult thought came to his mind. Could it be. Kagome? Was that it? The thought had crossed his mind far more than once, but each time it became a little bit harder to forget about. He pondered a bit more, failing to realize that each second was precious and with each passing gust of wind, death could be making its way to Kagome and the others. Just then he jerked his head forward and looked straight in front of him, as his nose once again detected Sesshomaru's powerful scent. He bolted off in its direction almost immediately after smelling it, surprising a certain two-tailed youkai sitting on his shoulder, almost knocking her off.

Meanwhile, off in the distance, Sesshomaru made his way towards the scent of a certain half-breed of, which was the name he so commonly referred to his little brother as. Sesshomaru wondered how on earth Inuyasha's scent could be getting stronger so fast, but it mattered not. The youkai lord made his way towards him anyway. He decided that walking through the forest he was in was no longer sufficient, and he turned around to speak to Rin and Jaken. "Jaken, watch over Rin while I do battle with Inuyasha. I shall return shortly and all the pieces of this puzzle shall be put together." Sesshomaru returned to the original direction he was facing and began to dart off, as he was farewelled by a "Yes master Sesshomaru!" in a rather high pitched, annoying voice. Sesshomaru flew at top speed through the underbrush of the forest as he made his way incredibly quickly to Inuyasha to once and for all witness his half-brother's full transformation; and see what he could do in his youkai state.

Eventually, Sesshomaru came to an opening in the forest; it was a huge open field with relatively tall grass in all-visible directions. He decided that he would meet Inuyasha here, in the center of this meadow. So, he traveled the short 3 blocks or so to its center and awaited Inuyasha's arrival.

In the mean time, he thought to himself. 'I must destroy Inuyasha at all costs. He is the only being ever, to make I, Sesshomaru, tremble with fear; for even a moment!' Sesshomaru pondered that thought as his true features began to show themselves on his face while the memory that was so fresh in his mind, and still quite embarrassing. After a while of more considering how to eliminate those thoughts from his mind, he decided that he would simply destroy Inuyasha in his transformed state. Well, he would soon get his chance because Inuyasha had just about made it to the field!

Sesshomaru stood deep in thought, not realizing that even now a mere human could quite easily detect the sound of Inuyasha's feet rapidly bringing him through the forest. This would be a disadvantage for Sesshomaru, especially seeing that now, Inuyasha made his appearance.

The hanyou shot out from the trees in the forest around 50 feet in the air, and landed about 60 feet in front of Sesshomaru. Inuyasha thought to himself. 'Heh. The fool. Doesn't even know I'm here.' He smirked, and almost laughed. 'But I've gotta say, this will be the first time I've ever caught him off guard.' Inuyasha was prepared to end it quickly, and in the most sufficient way, when an instinct arose in him, and seemed to speak. Tell him you're here.let him look upon his destroyer, so he may tremble with fear before you kill him! Inuyasha just snapped and gave into this instinct like nothing. He cracked his knuckles, which would be enough for Sesshomaru to snap out of it. krick krack was all it took for the youkai lord to look over in Inuyasha's direction, and of course, Inuyasha smirked. "Well Sesshomaru, deep in thought are we?" Inuyasha chuckled to himself. Sesshomaru looked over at him to see his little brother taking joy in his distraction from battle. He became furious. "Inuyasha, how long have you been standing there?" the hanyou just stood tall with a smirk. "Long enough to kill you, I'll say that much." Sesshomaru became enraged at this embarrassment and charged Inuyasha; who was suddenly no longer accompanied by Kirara- the cat youkai whom took off in the direction that Inuyasha came from. Inuyasha however made little note of it, he figured he'd kill his elder brother long before Kirara brought back Sango, Miroku, Kagome, and Shippo. But then again he didn't really care at all anymore, perhaps he got a confidence boost from optional preemptive strike that he turned down, which could have inflicted a fatal blow to Sesshomaru. It didn't matter, because in any case, Sesshomaru was charging at him right now and Inuyasha was about to have a fight of a lifetime!

Inuyasha drew Tetsaiga, which transformed so quickly it seemed to happen right as it was drawn. Sesshomaru drew Tokijin and made a downward slash at Inuyasha, who side stepped out of the way while thrusting his claws at his face. Sesshomaru arched his back to nimbly and quite luckily dodge the blow, for it would have made Inuyasha's already good chance of winning even better. The two both flipped backwards, Sesshomaru slightly more graceful than Inuyasha; who of course decided to take the time to draw blood from his wrist and fire "Blades of Blood!" Directly at Sesshomaru's head who blocked with Tokijin and returned fire with his whip of light. Inuyasha observed the attack and dodged every one of the whip's strikes, like a dance almost. He dodged left, up, down, left, right, but eventually got hit by the 6th strike; Sesshomaru never made a 6th strike. "Well Sesshomaru, I see you've grown your arm back." Inuyasha said with a smirk. Sesshomaru made no comment back however, he just simply struck at Inuyasha again landing a blow from his whip to Inuyasha's face.

Meanwhile, Kirara made her way back to Sango and the rest of the group to retrieve them for their assistance.

She finally arrived, who was greeted by a loving touch from Sango to her faithful pet. But now was definitely not the time. Sango called back to Miroku and Kagome. "Kagome, Miroku, arms yourselves, we are about to do battle with Sesshomaru!" Miroku grabbed his staff and Kagome her bow before hoping on the back of an already tired Kirara. Luckily for Shippo, he managed to grab on to Kagome's shirt before Kirara took off and eventually became situated in Sango's lap. On the way, Sango explained to them what had happened in Inuyasha's absence.  
Kagome made a fist and put it up to her heart. 'Oh, Inuyasha.please be okay.' she thought to herself as she held on to Kirara's back the best she could. Miroku noticed that Kagome wasn't looking like her normally cheerful self, which was understandable at the moment considering the circumstances. Miroku tried to think of some ways to raise the poor girl's spirit, but could think of nothing; so he did what anyone would do. "Don't worry Kagome, I'm sure Inuyasha will be just fine when we get to him." Kagome still didn't feel any better, but she did appreciate Miroku's concern for her condition. "Thanks, Miroku." Was all she managed to get out before she returned to that incredibly sad, sinking feeling that she always got whenever Inuyasha might be in mortal danger.

Sesshomaru's fist connected with Inuyasha's face yet again, as he quite enjoyed his revenge for something he took rather serious. However, he became annoyed at the fact that Inuyasha had not yet transformed and was beginning to wonder why. "Inuyasha, tell me.why have you not transformed to your full youkai state?" Inuyasha looked up at Sesshomaru from his knew hole in the ground and smirked. "You just haven't quite beat it out of me yet, Sesshomaru." The great Sesshomaru, who now had grown back his left arm, became extremely annoyed at that one statement. "What do you mean, I hav-" just then he remembered what was different about his previous battle with his brother. The last time they fought, Tetsaiga was far too heavy for Inuyasha to wield so Sesshomaru made him toss it aside. 'Hmm.perhaps Tetsaiga has something to do with Inuyasha's transformation.' He thought silently to himself. That idea suddenly made a lot of sense to Sesshomaru. 'Perhaps father,' he thought 'placed some sort of magic barrier on Tetsaiga that would seal up Inuyasha's potential as a youkai.' That idea seemed to work, especially since his father must have known of Inuyasha's incredible hidden power. Sesshomaru had decided that that had to be it, beyond the shadow of a doubt. So, with the new knowledge that he had just acquired, Sesshomaru leapt over to Inuyasha and thrust Tetsaiga from him, somewhere to the north. Sesshomaru picked up Inuyasha by his throat with his left arm and spoke. "Now, Inuyasha. Show this Sesshomaru your true power." Inuyasha closed his eyes as Sesshomaru continued his thought. "Or die." Suddenly, with those last two words, Sesshomaru felt Inuyasha's pulse quadruple in repetition and felt a fiery burst of energy shoot out him. And just as that was happening, Kirara and the others arrived at the scene. Kagome jumped off of Kirara and began to run towards Inuyasha, but Miroku stopped her. "Kagome, do not be foolish. There is nothing you can do for Inuyasha at present." Said the monk, even thought he had an extreme urge to aid Inuyasha as well.

Sesshomaru's grip on Inuyasha's throat tightened, as he became bored with his little charade. "Inuyasha, I've seen all I need. Die!" Said an irritated Sesshomaru; who's speech was soon cut down as Inuyasha began his transformation to his full youkai form; too late for Sesshomaru's recognition. 'That scent again!' was the only thing that ran through Sesshomaru's mind as he almost shook in fear.

Shippo jumped down from his spot on Miroku's shoulder as his nose informed him on the current situation. He ran over to Kagome to tell her the news, speaking frantically to the battle mesmerized girl. "Kagome! Kagome!" he shouted in a desperate attempt to obtain the young miko's attention for even a second. He pulled on skirt as a last resort, and that did the trick. Kagome looked down at the little kitsune seeming to be very sad. "What Shippo?" she asked in respondence to her skirt being yanked on. Shippo was relieved that he finally got her attention, and almost forgot what to tell her but then remembered. (Luckily for him) "Kagome," he began to explain. "Inuyasha's scent." Kagome looked terrified. "What! He's not dea.d. is he!" Shippo's gaze met her's and he quickly explained. "No! What I'm trying to tell you is that Inuyasha just transformed!" he shouted. "Inuyasha is now in his full youkai state!" Kagome's eyes widened as she gasped. "Oh, Lord.help us." was all she could say because she knew what he could do like that, and it wouldn't be pretty.

Sesshomaru blinked as he realized what kind of power had just erupted from Inuyasha's body. None the less, he stood there holding him by the neck above the ground with his left arm. Inuyasha opened his eyes to reveal a strong, bright red light, which illuminated from them; also giving off just enough light to show the purple lightning marks on Inuyasha's cheeks. Sesshomaru stared into his eyes- not the eyes of a hanyou, but a youkai; A youkai with one single desire. The desire to KILL. Inuyasha spoke, slightly startling Sesshomaru in his gaze to imagine what might happen to him at this range. "What's the matter, brother? I thought you were about to run me through with your sword!" Inuyasha taunted.

All Sesshomaru could do was to look at Inuyasha and be horrified as the youkai placed his claws around Sesshomaru's left arm and let himself down. Inuyasha looked at his older brother for a moment. "I should kill you where you stand." He said, halfly reminding Sesshomaru about what he was attempting to do to his younger brother only seconds ago. Inuyasha stared at Sesshomaru for one more moment, with a smirk, and then shot his right hand out like lightning, clutching Sesshomaru's neck. Inuyasha began to smile. "I'm going to rip you apart." He said to a horrified Sesshomaru as he began to do as he said. He then (Using only one hand mind you) slammed Sesshomaru's legs into the ground using the grip he had on his neck, and punched him in the solar plexus so hard, he vomited. Inuyasha then rapidly sunk his fist into Sesshomaru's gut at about that same power as before, except this time, every now and then he would leave a nice cut across his abs. And after he was done with that, his gaze met Sesshomaru's and all the poor youkai lord could do was watch and feel pain, because Inuyasha would just catch him if he tried to leave. (Plus his feet were stuck in the ground at present.) The now enraged Inuyasha once again began his onslaught on his elder brother's body by jumping on him, slamming him to the ground, end beginning to stomp on his gut after gauging out Sesshomaru' left eye. Inuyasha began to laugh, chuckling a little louder every time his foot connected to his brother's gut; and each time, death came closer and closer to Sesshomaru.

For now Inuyasha decided that some other type of assault was fitting and he was just about ready to stop toying with him. His instincts screamed at him Now.KILL HIM! Take his life! End it now! Smell his fresh warm blood on your claws! Was what they commanded, So he looked at Sesshomaru, and smirked. He then suddenly jumped back, crouched, and flew at Sesshomaru to land a nice juicy punch again right in Sesshomaru's gut. Sesshomaru screamed in pain and thought to himself. 'So.Little brother.THIS is your power.Curse you!'

Kagome and the others could no longer bear to watch, so they all ran closer to him but stayed roughly 20 feet away. Kagome cried out to Inuyasha in an attempt to halt his horrible onslaught. "Please, Inuyasha, stop! Let him go, he is no longer a threat to you!" Kagome shed tears of sadness and fear, as Inuyasha didn't even for one moment listen to what she had to say; he simply continued to brutally assault Sesshomaru's gut/ribs/solar plexus with his fists. Sesshomaru almost asked for mercy, but not quite. He had more honor than that, so he continued to take the beating to his torso all the while listening to Inuyasha's constant laughing. Then suddenly, Inuyasha pulled away from him. He turned around and his back faced Sesshomaru. He seemed to omit a red aura that looked as if to evaporate off of his body. "Sesshomaru, do you remember when I protected this human girl and you shot your hand through my back and out my stomach?" Inuyasha growled, and Sesshomaru's heart skipped two beats. Inuyasha let out a low- pitched chuckle, which eventually became more climactic and turned into a full-blown evil laugh. Sango fainted, Shippo and Kirara ran away, Miroku stepped back, and Kagome cried as Inuyasha spun around so fast as if he were already standing in that direction and thrust his hand with extended claws through Sesshomaru's stomach and out his back. Kagome felt sick, she had never been this scared before. She thought to herself, 'What's he going to do to us? Will we live to see tomorrow?' she became extremely saddened; but all she could do was watch Sesshomaru's gut shoot out blood like a cannon. Just then Inuyasha put his hand on Sesshomaru's neck, extending one claw. "DIE." He said, as Kagome screamed out Inuyasha's name and ran in front of Sesshomaru. She pleaded with him. "Inuyasha, stop! You have to stop! Please, PLEASE don't kill him! I beg of you!" Inuyasha pulled away from Sesshomaru and took a second to think about her request. He remembered all the things that they had been through and he figured that he might be able to give her this one favor. Inuyasha looked at Kagome, and decided that he at least wanted a reason for him to not kill his brother, so he asked. "Why should I?" he demanded to know as Kagome cried. "Because!" she pleaded. "It's wrong Inuyasha! Don't, please, doh." Inuyasha looked at Kagome. He was rather moved by her tears. And luckily for her he hadn't quite snapped; there was still one more step of his transformation to complete it, so he wasn't completely full youkai. (Yet!) He considered her request, and came to the conclusion that she was right. Sesshomaru was no longer a threat, he had surely learned his lesson. He decided to let his anger subside and kill Sesshomaru another day. The red in his eyes and purple stripes on his cheeks disappeared, and he stopped emitting his evil aura; and finally his body went back to its original temperature.

Inuyasha stared at Kagome, who held her hand in her other while crying and fearing for her life, when suddenly, Inuyasha started to complain the way he always does when things don't go his way. "Hey Kagome, what's your deal! Why do you always cry your head off whenever anything like this happens!" he moaned. Kagome's tears suddenly stopped pouring out, and she looked up to see Inuyasha's beautiful golden eyes. She screamed for joy "Thank You GOD! Inuyasha, I'm so glad you're back to normal!" she said as she threw herself on him and hugged him. Sesshomaru flew off as hurt as he was, and said nothing. Inuyasha was a bit surprised, and didn't hug back at first, but then he decided that he might as well. "Oi, Kagome, what are you talking about?" he whined. " I've been back to normal ever since you pulled me out of that blasted tree." Kagome didn't care what he said, as long as he was no longer full youkai. She looked up from her spot on his chest and stared into his eyes, seeing her own reflection back in them. Then they both realized what kind of position they were in and they both pulled away. Inuyasha was the first to say anything, who was probably just as embarrassed as Kagome. "Hey, whadya do that for!" he said, acting as if he was unaware of their situation for a while. Kagome looked at him, blushing. "Oh, come on Inuyasha, you know you liked it!" Inuyasha could feel his anger building. "Oh, yeah! Whatever!" he said defensively with a sarcastic tone. "You're the one who was blushing!" He said as he pointed at Kagome's cheeks. "See! See!" he blabbed indicating the redness on her face as it began to get darker. Kagome felt embarrassed, but not ashamed. And with a 'Hmph' she turned towards the forest and started to walk back to the tent. "Well mabey I did like it." She taunted as she kept walking, being quite sure not to make eye contact with Inuyasha. He however, was quite surprised. The poor hanyou scrambled out his sentences as he desperately tried to understand Kagome. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean!" He yelled at her as she calmly walked off. Inuyasha noticed that she probably wouldn't be turning back, and he decided that he would give her some time to think to herself. So, he turned to go pick up Tetsusaiga, which was still laying somewhere towards the northern direction of the field. After which he planned to head back to the tent and speak to Kagome, who had done a successful job of confusing poor Inuyasha.

Well, that's it! Chapter 2! Please R&R! Death threats, suggestions, and comments are all welcome!


	3. I Wish I Realized

Hi again, sorry it took so long to update, and I aren't getting along very well. Anyway, before I start this chapter I would like to express my gratitude to all of you who reviewed and showed your support. Thanks, it's a big help. Anyway, here it is; Sweet Dreams Inuyasha chapter 3! Please R&R, and enjoy! - - Lady Silver wind-I did my best on your advice, now there's more than just 4 paragraphs. Thanks!

Inuyasha watched Kagome as she walked off into the forest, and tried to think of something he could say to her to calm her down a little, at least. Because he knew that every time Kagome got mad at him, everyone suffered; particularly him. No thanks of course to a non-stop flow of sit commands. 'Cursed prayer beads.' he thought to himself. Inuyasha folded his arms in his Kimono and started to mumble to himself as he walked over to retrieve Tetsaiga; which would be rather difficult seeing how it was roughly 3 o clock in the morning and not exactly the brightest time during the day. He retraced his steps and tried to remember exactly what happened when Sesshomaru thrust it from his grasp, but he could not recall the incident exactly; and relying on his nose at the moment would do him no good, because the fresh scent of blood was still far too thick to smell anything but that.

Miroku and Sango watched observantly from afar and chuckled to themselves every now and then as they observed Inuyasha's futile attempt to retrieve his fabled sword. And each time he picked up a stick only to find that it was not Tetsaiga, their laughter more than doubled. Inuyasha became annoyed at the fact that he was entertaining his comrades in a not so respectful way, and he let them know it. "Hey what's so funny ya stupid jackass! I'd like to see you do better at finding a rusted old katana in pitch-black darkness. He said to Miroku who diligently turned down the offer. "Oh, of course not, Inuyasha. Sango and I were merely laughing at a trifle matter." Inuyasha squinted his eyes and keh'd as he returned to his inevitable search for his sword.

While he was walking, he noticed about a four-foot object laying in the grass, possibly his sword, so he picked it up. And as he did, he heard the laughter of a certain youkai exterminator and monk approach a climax. Sango looked at Miroku, and spoke to him in between giggles. "Miroku, you really should give it back to him." she whispered, in fear that Inuyasha's superior hearing ability would catch her red handed. And even though she said it as quietly as possible, Inuyasha heard it and hopped up to Miroku from where he was anyway. The hanyou looked at the purple garmentted monk, obviously not in the best mood. "Give WHAT back to me, 'lady Sango'?" he asked in a sarcastic tone, as he clearly knew what it was he had. Miroku grinned and put his left hand behind his head, pretending not to understand. "Wah, what ever do you speak of, my lady?" Inuyasha was positive that it was Tetsaiga at this point, and was getting really angry. He cracked his knuckles and bopped Miroku right in the back of his head, as a vein popped out on his fist. Miroku reached into his cloak and pulled out Tetsaiga, as Inuyasha suspected he would. "Gee thanks." commented an irritated hanyou as he took the sword from his 'ally's' hand and began to walk off towards the forest. Sango looked at Miroku, who had another newly formed knot on his head. "I told you you should have gave it to him sooner." She said as she laughed, and Shippo nodded in agreement. Miroku just stood and thought to himself. 'It was worth the pain.'

After collecting an unnecessarily difficult to obtain Tetsaiga, Inuyasha too made his way to the tent through the forest. As he walked, he thought about what had just happened between him and Kagome. "Mabey I did like it!" he grumbled to himself, feeling irritated that she was probably just messing with his head. He thought more and more about it, and each time he did, he felt a little more nervous about the whole thing. So, he tried to get his mind off it, and came up with the perfect solution. 'Who cares about what she does!' he thought with a grin. 'I just beat my older brother, Sesshomaru, for the first time in my life!' He puffed out his chest with pride as he continued his thought. 'And it was a snap at that!' Inuyasha considered if Sesshomaru had possibly gotten weaker over the past few months, but quickly decided that that was not very likely, in fact very UNLIKELY. The hanyou continued thinking to himself as he walked and tried to forget about what ever it was he was forgetting, when, suddenly, he remembered the incident he and Kagome were in a mere two hours ago, and became rather angry. "BLAST IT!" he yelled without thinking, and let just about everything in the forest know where he was. He let out a moan, and decided to simply think about it in the morning.

Sesshomaru, who was still badly injured from his fight with Inuyasha, found himself wandering around towards the opposite exit of the forest where of he had left Rin and Jaken. He had tried several times to contemplate what had just recently happened to him because of Inuyasha, but he still couldn't quite understand how he had obtained so much more control over his new found power than he had not too long ago needed so much of. 'How?' was the word that he repeated in his mind over and over again. He recalled that the last time he fought with his younger brother, Inuyasha had completely lost his senses and went rampant- not even listening to the wise advice from his friends. And much like Inuyasha's thoughts, each time he went over what it was he was thinking about it became more and more bizarre. Sesshomaru compared in his mind Inuyasha's two almost completely different attack strategies both times he transformed. 'During my first confrontation with his youkai state, all Inuyasha did was charge at me blindly with no apparent type of strategy other than that. But the second time I met up with his transformation, he made sure that I wouldn't go anywhere by sticking me in the ground and attacking my vital spots.' He went over it again and again and again until. 'Wait! I remember now that THIS time around he listened to that Kagome girl. Last time he paid almost no attention to her what so ever!' that seemed to click with Sesshomaru, because he knows that a female can be a BIG influence to a youkai; especially one who relies almost completely on instinct to survive and do, well, everything else. He contemplated that she probably DID have an influence on him. Sesshomaru smirked in the most Sesshomaru way he could, and felt a boost of pride. "At least I know I might have been able to beat him were it not for that girl. He felt content, and would probably not bother Inuyasha or his friends ever again; or at least for a while.

Inuyasha, who finally made it back to the tent, was greeted by Kirara, and growled back in a similar youkai language acknowledging the two-tailed neko. "Yeah, I walked." He said, and was responded to by a low-pitched grunt. The silver haired hanyou walked over to the tent and looked inside only to find that no one had been courteous enough to save some room for him, so he hopped into a nearby tree and fell asleep after a long, long night.

The next morning, Kagome awoke and sat up in her blanket, and yawned as she pondering on the previous night's events. She felt sorry for Inuyasha, and felt bad because she knew it must be hard to not be able to control something the way Inuyasha couldn't. Although it DID surprise her that her cries and pleas for mercy on Sesshomaru's behalf got through to him. 'I remember the last couple of times he transformed, I thought that I lost him forever and felt that my life was in danger; and I had to sit him. But this time.' she continued. 'he listened to me.' Kagome was still a bit confused about what it all meant, especially on that last thought; because LAST time Inuyasha transformed he paid no attention to her whatsoever. So she decided to go and wake him up to have a few questions answered. And as she did what she intended to do she removed the leathery doorway from her destination to go outside and breath the fresh morning air, and looked at the nearest tree in an attempt to find Inuyasha. "Inuyasha! Inuyasha!" she called, but was to her disappointment unresponded to because Inuyasha was no where to be found. She tried a few more times, but to no avail. She shrugged at the fact that he wasn't currently available and went on to plan B: go inside to get her bathing supplies to take a bath instead. Kagome jogged down towards the spring after retrieving her supplies, and hopped on in; after which deciding that she would talk to Inuyasha later.

She so loved a nice bath, even though the water was as freezing as ever. She didn't mind, because she knew that it couldn't be helped; Inuyasha had done his best to locate their campsite near some water just SO Kagome could take a daily bath. And that seemed nice enough, for Inuyasha's personality anyway.

After dipping and diving around the spring, Kagome became irritated with the swimsuit. (It was a bit on the small side.) Her mom had bought it for her and she appreciated the thought, but it was way, WAY too tight in some areas that don't need to be discussed. So, she considered removing it. 'Well, no one is really around, and Miroku is asleep.' she thought, and after a bit of more debating, got out of the water and took it off. Even though Inuyasha made it clear to Miroku and Shippo NEVER to go to the lake unless Sango and Kagome were at the tent, the young miko felt nervous anyway and quickly jumped back into the water.

She sighed as she continued to swim around in the much-appreciated lake, and took her thoughts back to the previous night. So much confusion filled her mind as she wondered about how mysterious Inuyasha had become lately. The first thing Kagome decided to consider, was 'What was he dreaming about anyway!' the ideas that popped into her mind really bugged her, but she managed to calm herself and think clearly. 'I really wish I hadn't heard him say that last night.' she moaned. 'But, I'm glad I did, for some reason.' Kagome continued her trait of thought, when she heard a splash over on the other side of a marsh. Fear filled her for a moment, but a short moment it was. There was absolutely nothing to worry about, except mabey a mountain lion, the only problem with that idea was the fact that Inuyasha had thoroughly explained that there were no such beasts in this section of the woods. 'Mabey it's a youkai?' she wondered. None the less, what ever it was she would never know until she went over to the other side to see.

Kagome popped her head around the side of the marsh and looked upon whatever or whoever it was that had interrupted her private bath. It turns out, her guess was HALF right; she stared at the figure who was in fact, none other than Inuyasha. She became angry and called out to him. "Hey! What's the big idea! I thought you said that nobody was allowed over here when Sango and I weren't at the tent!" she yelled angrily, obviously not too happy to see the person that she was looking for only 15 minutes ago. Inuyasha's ears twitched as he turned his head to see Kagome's sticking out of the water. "Oh, you're hear." He began. "I thought you were asleep in the tent." He said, trying to give a brief explanation for his presence at the current location. Kagome felt a little bad for yelling at him, and began to apologize. "Oh, nonono!" she said in an accepting voice. "It was an honest mistake! I was just about to leave anyway!" Inuyasha swam over to where she was, growing suspicious of her sudden understanding. "Hey, wait a minute." He said as he began his interrogation. "Why are you being so nice all of a sudden?" continued an even more suspicious hanyou. Kagome was okay with him being here - it was as she said, an honest mistake. However, the fact that he was about two feet in front of her in water while she was naked was a different story. And on instinct, she exclaimed "SIT!" which wasn't the nicest thing to do to poor Inuyasha whom was just minding his own business cleaning his Kimono when his lungs were suddenly filled with water.

Kagome wasn't very happy about what she had just done, but decided to seize the moment and get dressed. So she quickly got out of the water and began to put her swimsuit back on, while Inuyasha was just surfacing and began to cough up a lot of water. She looked at him as he desperately scrambled towards shore in an attempt to breath, and yet another instinct inside of her spoke. Help him, he may die! It shouted, which was all it took for her to rush back into the water at his side. She grabbed his arm and began to help him across the water all the while feeling horrible for what she had done. "Inuyasha! Are you okay!" she asked in a panic, hoping that he was, completely forgetting that he was a hanyou.

Inuyasha lay on the shore, after coughing up the last of the water in his lungs and stared at Kagome, feeling just a TAD bit annoyed at what she had just done to him. "Geeze Kagome! You could have just TOLD me that you didn't want me around!" he exclaimed detecting a bit of rejection. She looked at him, feeling really, REALLY bad at what she did which was almost completely an accident, and apologized while she explained. "I'm so sorry! I was just, y'know. Not dressed and-" Inuyasha cut her off. "Well sheesh! Why didn't you tell me you weren't dressed! I would have gladly waited on the other side of the marsh had I known that!" He screamed, feeling even angrier but less rejected. Kagome felt even worse, but continued to apologize. "Well look, I'm SORRY, okay? I wasn't thinking straight alright!" Kagome said trying to get her point across, and Inuyasha finally accepted her apology.

He turned his head to the right and looked over his shoulder and spoke in acceptance. "It's alright, forget about it." Kagome's gaze met his as she calmed down. "Well, I'm glad you're not mad. For a minute there I thought that you-" Inuyasha cut her off once again. "Kagome, I know you well enough by now to know that you wouldn't just sit me to be mean, y'know." Kagome's heart beat just a tad bit faster. "Oh. I'm glad you understand." She said calmly, and grabbed his hand. "Thanks." Inuyasha looked at her with a faint blush on his cheeks, but couldn't find any words for the situation. He wondered what he said that could have made her do something so bold like that, it really wasn't like her. "Uh, Kagome? Why are y-" he began to ask but was cut off because Kagome decided to change the subject. "So, what were you doing here before all that?" she asked cheerfully, removing her hand from his. He looked at her blankly for a moment, then found his words. "Oh, that. I was just down here washing my Kimono from last night." He explained. "You know, all the blood from Sesshomaru." He added. Kagome just then noticed that he wasn't wearing his kimono, and took her time staring at his upper body before speaking. "Oh, I guess that explains it." she said, sounding a bit lost for words. And this very loss for words caught a certain hanyou's attention. "Hey, Kagome? You all right? You sound a bit confused." He said, wondering what she could be thinking about. Kagome was caught off guard while she sat in awe at Inuyasha's stunning figure. "Ahh, I'm sorry. I was just thinking about something unimportant." Inuyasha's suspicion grew to a higher level. "All right, spill it." He said, obviously wanting to hear an explanation.

Kagome looked at him. "Oh you should talk! I forgot all about that dream you were screaming about last night! Let's hear that too!" she said, catching him 'red handed.' The halfly dressed hanyou looked up at her in surprise, for he too had almost completely forgotten about his episode the previous night. He gulped. "Ahh, never mind that Kagome! Let's just drop the whole thing!" he said with a grin, hoping that she would. And of course she didn't, so she continued to interrogate him. "Well, why won't you tell me, anyway!" Kagome asked getting annoyed at the fact that he constantly denied her the answer. Inuyasha looked at her, and suddenly got serious. "No. I said I can't tell you." He stood up, gathered his kimono and began to walk off, while successfully worrying Kagome. She tried to stop him.

"Wait, what did I say? I'm sorry, I'll just forget about it." Inuyasha looked back at her, and asked her sincerely. "Are you sure? You'll NEVER ask me about it again?" Kagome gazed at him confused, but still granted his request. "Okay." she said meekly. "I'll just let you tell me when you're ready. Inuyasha turned back around, and began to walk off towards the tent. "Thanks."

Well, that's it! Bit of a cliffhanger but oh well. Comments, ideas, death threats, suggestions are all welcome!


	4. Why Does It Feel Like Night Today?

Hi again, sorry the last chapter was a bit short, but I just felt that it needed to be ended there. - -Shi-Chan-The reason that it's SWI instead of what it should be, (sDi) is because I did that on accident and didn't realize it until my third chapter. Lol. So, I decided to go along with it. Thanks for asking though, I was trying to think of an eligible reason to tell everyone about that! -

Inuyasha and Kagome eventually made it back to the tent and did whatever it is that you do when taking care of a camp, and after a hard day's work sat down to a meal that Sango and Shippo prepared.

Inuyasha bit down into what ever it was that the two had prepared and gave his comment. "Hey, hey! Not bad!" he declared, giving Shippo the opportunity to puff out his chest with pride. Which he did quite diligently, only to be shot down with the next few words that came out of Kagome's mouth.

"So, Shippo, you made this?" she asked, in complete awe of someone his age's cooking ability. The little Kitsune looked over just exactly what she was biting into, and corrected her. "Oh, no. Lady Sango made that." He said, clearing up a bit of confusion, while indicating a new spot on the mat they were eating on. "I made that! Try it!" declared a joyful as ever Shippo, while he hopped up and down with excitement. Kagome OK'd it and reached over to grab a piece of what appeared to be grass, and meekly took a bite.

Suddenly everyone stopped eating and looked over at Kagome, who was now on the floor choking thanks to a fox youkai named Shippo. Inuyasha rushed to her side in an attempt to help her.somehow. "Kagome, are you all right?" he exclaimed, not very happy at all at the young Kitsune's horrid cooking. "You stupid little brat! What were you thinking, letting a human first sample your food!" he scolded while a pop was heard and a nice huge lump was formed on Shippo's head.

Shippo yanked on Kagome's shirt and began his daily whining routine. "Kagome! Inuyasha's picking on me again!" he complained, in that snobbish, incredulously annoying way that he does. Kagome tried to calm Inuyasha. "Oh, come on Inuyasha, give the poor kid a break! He's just a child."

Inuyasha turned his head and keh'd as he went back to his spot to pout. 'One of these days kid, one of these days.' he thought to himself, thoughroly enjoying his ideas for revenge.

Miroku and Sango had taken note on Shippo's newly found cooking abilities, and gave their portions to Kirara whom disposed of them as well after taking a bite. Inuyasha however, ate it without a problem. And Kagome watched as he did, just wanting to scream out 'HOW CAN YOU EAT THAT!' but restrained herself, because she didn't want to hurt Shippo's feelings.

After dinner, Miroku, Kagome, and Inuyasha played a game called "Rock Paper Scissors" to decide who would have dish cleaning duty. First Round: Inuyasha: rock. Miroku: Paper. Kagome: paper. Miroku looked at Inuyasha with a smirk. "Well it seems you lose this round, Inuyasha." His smirk however was returned to with a jab to the face, which didn't exactly make Miroku happy. "Inuyasha, why did you do that! Surely I didn't anger you THAT much!" Inuyasha stared at Miroku in confusion and began to try to explain. "What are you talking about, you stupid monk! I got a fist, and you got a guard. So, I try to hit you and you try to block!" he said, obviously not understanding the object of the game. Kagome looked at him in disbelief, trying to figure out how ANYONE couldn't understand rock paper scissors.

She thought about whether or not she would teach Inuyasha the rules of the game once more, but decided that it was indeed, inevitable. "Never mind, Inuyasha. I'll do the dishes tonight." Said a hopeless Kagome, who was responded to by a reluctant Inuyasha. "Thanks Kagome!" he began as he turned his head towards Miroku. "See? Now THERE'S a good loser. Never questioning the rules!" Smirked Inuyasha, whom was given two things: A glare from Miroku and a scrub brush from Kagome who stomped off towards the tent. "Hey! What's the big idea!" he asked, not at all understanding that Kagome WAS trying to be nice; but not after that. "Oi. I'll never understand humans." He moaned, but soon after pouting got to work with cleaning.

Inuyasha eventually finished the dishes and was afterwards thanked by a grateful Kagome, whom emerged from the tent after an hour or so of laughing with the others. "Thanks Inuyasha, everything looks really nice." She said in all honesty, hoping not to offend the hanyou in any way. Inuyasha however just turned his head to the right and keh'd. "Well I guess you're welcome," he started, but quickly returned to his phrase "but would you mind explaining to me WHY it was that I was the one who ended up doing the dishes? When I'm the one who won!" Kagome chuckled as she tried to tell him.

She looked at him, as he seemed to have pure innocence in his eyes, which wasn't something that happened too often for Inuyasha. "Never mind, I'll explain the rules to you some time when it's important." She said, feeling pretty tired from their particularly long day for some reason. Inuyasha, the now irritated hanyou, decided that it WAS important, and he let her know it. "Now wait a second! I think that you should a least tell me how to play! What if I get cheated next time and I don't know it!" he exclaimed seeming rather unhappy.

Kagome reconsidered much more quickly than she thought she would, and decided to teach him. "All right, here's how you start." she began.

After a grateful Inuyasha had finally learned the rules for the now pointless game that he thought of to be "rock paper scissors," he lay in the tent with his eyes closed as to be fast asleep. Of course he wasn't, for he had other plans for the night. The hanyou continued to act dead tired all throughout the rest of the conversation that took place between his comrades, and waited for about a half hour after they fell asleep before finally standing up and making his way outside.

He wouldn't go far, because he wanted to make sure that Kagome and the others would be in no danger just in case something happened. And as to be extra cautious, he told Kirara to stay up on the look out until he returned, after which he grabbed Tetsusaiga from its resting-place near Kagome's quiver and headed out.

'I shall savor this night.' He thought, as would any other warrior on a calm starry night in the deep forest atop a mountain. While keeping this presence of mind, Inuyasha silently walked a few steps forward and tilted his head back to take in a sniff of the night air and be filled with the nocturnal sounds of the forest. He closed his eyes and went deep into thought, focusing on what he had to do to complete his training.

His objective was clear; he was going to attempt to master his senses while in full youkai form. He wasn't quite sure how he was going to do it, for there was no way for him to transform. (Unless his life is threatened) But he knew deep down inside of himself that there was indeed a way. There HAD to be a way. If there wasn't, he may lose the only thing that seemed to matter to him anymore: Kagome. 'Why am I doing this?' he repeated over and over again in his mind. 'I mean, sure Kagome's a great friend, but...' He wasn't exactly sure why he felt the way that he did, but in any case he did, and there was really nothing he could do about it, so he decided to press onward to find out a way to master 'himself,' in a way.

With that last thought, he opened his eyes and looked straight ahead of himself determining which way was towards the open field that he and Sesshomaru fought in a few days ago. And after remembering the exact path, he darted off in its direction to begin his training.

A few minutes after Inuyasha left, Kagome got up and rushed outside to find Kirara. 'I KNEW he was up to something!' she thought, as she searched for the neko youkai whom she soon found. "Hey, Kirara, could you give me a ride in the direction that Inuyasha went?" she asked of her, of course knowing that she would. In fact so well she asked after she had climbed on. Kirara growled in acknowledgment and took off after Inuyasha's scent.

While she rode, Kagome wondered to herself what could have been on Inuyasha's mind while she was teaching him RPS. She knew from the very beginning of her lesson that he wasn't exactly all there, but she had continued to teach him anyway. The young miko really had no idea what he could have been up to, so all she did was ride patiently on Kirara's back as the fiery two tailed neko desperately attempted to follow Inuyasha at the pace that he decided to take.

Upon nearing her destination, Kagome noticed that this was the exact same path that they had taken the other night from the field Inuyasha fought Sesshomaru in. 'What is he going to do?' she wondered. But yet again decided to let it go because there was no point on dwelling in things that cannot be changed.

Inuyasha stood in the center of the meadow, as he unsheathed Tetsusaiga in a similar fashion to the other night. He remembered how embarrassing it was the first time he did it like this, just after Totosai had completed repairing it with Inuyasha's fang instead of his father's. The sword fell to the ground like a rock, and right in front of everyone too! 'Oi how I loathed that day.' he thought. But decided to begin his training. He dropped Tetsusaiga's sheath to his left and went into a stance.

His legs were spread slightly, left foot in front of the right, as he turned his torso to his left and looked in the same direction while holding Tetsusaiga just in front of his face and shoulder. His grip on the blade was right-handed, and the dull edge faced downward. From this stance he spun around and brought the sword forward allowing the sharp edge to whistle through the wind and stop just before kicking, turning 180 degrees, and flipping forward as Tetsusaiga slammed into the ground; on which that very spot would have been a dead youkai, now in two pieces.  
He continued various choreographies such as this and brought the Iron Reaver technique along into the variations of his customized combo. And after a few minutes of this, became quite sweaty and removed his upper kimono and white under shirt. Eventually, he sheathed Tetsusaiga all together and decided to practice the choreography that he knew to go along with the little bits of Yushistu (A youkai martial art that I made up for the purpose of this story alone) that he had cared to take the time to study in past years of his incredibly long life.

Meanwhile, Kagome made her way on Kirara to the opening of the meadow and got off towards the exit of the forest. She stared at the figure towards the center of the meadow, and after determining that it was in fact Inuyasha, she ran towards him to meet him and have a few questions answered.

Upon arriving 20 feet or so from him, she began her little interrogation. "Hey, Inuyasha? What are you doing out here so late at night?" Inuyasha stopped his exercises and looked back at the young miko, not so much as even speaking to her. Kagome wondered why he would do something like that, so she did what anyone would do, ask! "What's the matter? Surprised to see me?" she called out to him as the wind began to pick up.

Inuyasha stared at Kagome for another moment. "Nah, sorry about that. I was just a little deep in thought." He began. "I knew you were following me the second I left the tent because your scent became significantly denser." He said indicating that a denser scent means either physical activity or worry in some way or another.

Kagome began walking towards him and smiled. "Oh, so why didn't you tell me where you were going?" she asked, feeling a bit confused. Who was responded to by a hanyou who was rather confused on the matter himself. "I don't know, to tell you the truth." He said in a type of daze, feeling a bit warm and dazed. They both gave out a light laugh, because they knew that their conversation wasn't making too much sense seeing how tired they were.

Kagome proceeded to walk towards Inuyasha, and began to reason with him. "Well, are you done out here? Why don't we just go back now?" Asked a hopeful Kagome still feeling a bit weird at the way Inuyasha was looking at her. But, she continued to walk towards him anyway, and was about 10 feet in front of him or so when Inuyasha began to feel a little strange.

His body was getting hot, and his pulse was beginning to beat a little faster-actually a lot faster. His instincts slowly began to try and take control of him, and Kagome continued to walk towards the ever-changing hanyou in front of her.

He then noticed that his body was a lot hotter. In fact so hot that for a moment he thought he would die, and then he felt like he was at boiling point, when his youkai features showed themselves on his face and he transformed to his full youkai state. Kagome stopped walking towards him and felt fear strike her heart as she looked directly into his red glowing eyes while he shouted:  
"GET AWAY FROM ME! I'TS NOT SAFE!"

Inuyasha was cut off in his own words as he stared at the now horrified human in front of him. All he could do was think the same word over and over and again: KILL. That was it. That was ALL that was on his mind.

Kagome yelled out and made a feeble attempt to calm him down. "Inuyasha! Get a hold of yourself!" she began, even though she knew that there was probably just a slight chance that he would listen to her. The enraged youkai looked back at her, deciding whether or not to strike her down and began to slowly walk towards her, and even then somehow tried to restrain himself. Instinct and emotion fought valiantly inside of him as Kagome stepped back in terror.

She thought for a moment, trying to come up with a way to calm him down. She didn't want to sit him, because she didn't want him to be angry when he went back to his original state. But her options were running low, for the red-eyed youkai continued to proceed towards her ever fearful self. Kagome took one last look at him and closed her eyes in fear and shouted out "SIT!"

Inuyasha stopped where he was and his ears twitched for a moment; only for a moment though as he continued to walk towards her not so much as even toughing the ground with any other part of his body other than his feet. Kagome looked him in total in complete horror. 'It didn't work!' she exclaimed mentally. 'But how!' she thought to herself even harder while wondering why he transformed in the first place. But it didn't matter at present; it was all over now. There was nothing she could do to stop him, so she knelt down where she was and began to pray

The bloodthirsty youkai however knew of no such things at the moment, and walked up a little closer to her when his instincts finally took complete control. He cracked his knuckles and raised his hand while poising to strike. "Die!" He exclaimed, and his words were followed by a scream.

I'm going to end this chapter right here just because I'm so evil! Will this fic end right here as well? Of course not. Will Kagome die? (What do you think.)


	5. Do Tell

Hey, how's it goin? Sorry again for ending the last chapter so soon, I promise that I'll do my best to make this one enjoyable. But enough chat, on with the story.

- - - - - - Inuyasha stopped where he was and allowed himself to listen to every vibration of the scream Kagome let out. Then something 'clicked' inside of him, and his senses went haywire with what they picked up. His nose was the first after his ears, which picked up something of such a familiar and dreaded sound. He didn't know it, but that sound he hated to hear so much was Kagome's scream. It brought back a few vivid memories that told him that someone important was in danger, all of which were shot down by the over flow of power from his transformation.

Then his nose went back to normal for a second, and he detected a familiar scent as well; one of which he also dreaded somewhere in the back of his mind. It was something that again he couldn't recall, but it told him once more that someone important was in danger. And also once again that something he didn't recognize was also being generated from Kagome's body; it was the scent that she unconsciously produced whenever she was afraid for her life.

And as that same miko's body produced one more scent, Inuyasha's memories were sealed inside himself. The scent was that of her tears, and with that mixture of sense recognition (Kagome's scream, amplified scent, and the scent of her tears) he came to.

Inuyasha stared at Kagome, who was still kneeling with her fingers interlaced, praying and hoping that the bloodthirsty youkai that was now her best friend would come to his senses and stop his attack. So many memories came back to Inuyasha and he completely found himself, even though he was just fine two minutes ago. He suddenly felt great sorrow, and that was when he regained his normal form.

The terrified miko looked up at him on reflex, and saw that he was no longer in his full youkai state. She could feel the tears in her eyes beginning to get bigger, and again on reflex she threw herself on the half witted hanyou. "Inuyasha! I'm so glad you're back!" she exclaimed while her grip around his body tightened. Inuyasha suddenly felt even more sorrow come upon him, and he jumped back from her embrace.

Kagome looked up at him and felt a bit of rejection. "What's wrong? I was just happy to see that you're back to normal." she began, sounding sadder as her sentence went on. "Can't I at least hug you?" asked a now very sad Kagome, and Inuyasha met her gaze with an angry one. "Don't you get it! I'm not, err, YOU'RE not safe around me!" he yelled hoping that she would heed his warning, but Kagome responded meekly and acceptant anyway. "Inuyasha, I don't care! Don't you get it! I'm just glad you're back to normal!" she yelled hoping that he really was. And as Inuyasha was about to respond, Kagome cut him off. "No, don't say anything." She reasoned. "There is probably SOME way for you to control you're youkai powers, and-" she stopped, it now being her turn to be cut off. Inuyasha could feel an immense amount of concern rise up in him as he began his argument.

"Kagome, look: I don't want you to die at my hands, all right? I guess you don't yet realize that I transformed without reason; no cause; just for the heck of it." Said an even angrier Inuyasha. "I might kill you and the others at any time and at ANY place!" Kagome stood up and put a fist over her heart while she responded. "But it all happened so fast, and you went back to normal so quickly."

The hanyou knelt down and supported his body with his knees and hands. He thought for a moment, and came to the conclusion that there was only one thing that could be done to stop him from transforming again.

He stood up and informed Kagome, who was rather stunned by the amount of seriousness in his eyes. "I know that. But, what if you die next time? A few seconds is all that I will need." Began Inuyasha, with a certain odd tone in his voice as he continued. "I don't want it to be this way, but there is only one thing that I can do to ensure that I don't kill you." He said rather grimly. "And that is to kill myself." Kagome's heart skipped a beat in realization that he was completely serious, and of course tried to stop him.

"Wait Inuyasha, don't be foolish! There has to be a way we can-" the poor miko was once again cut off by Inuyasha, but this time by his actions. She gasped as she watched him put a claw up to his neck. "Kagome, I know that this might be hard on you, but it's the only way." He said as he extended his claw. Kagome bolted after him from where she stood, sobbing huge tears of fear. "Inuyasha don't!" was all she could say as a voice was heard towards the entrance to the forest.

"My lord! Wait! There is indeed a way for you to control your power!" screamed the voice of a certain flea, none other than Myoga. Inuyasha stopped his attempt on his own life and looked over at the forest. "Myoga? S'that you?" he asked in a completely different tone. Kagome noticed that he was off guard and seized the moment. "SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT SIIIIIIIIIIT!" Inuyasha, who WAS looking at the entrance to the forest in Myoga's direction, was now newly acquainted with looking directly at the ground. (Or at least he would be looking at it, if he were conscious that is.)

Kagome took a moment to sigh in relief, and then called Kirara over to gather up Inuyasha and take him with them. For a moment the neko was hesitant, but soon found no reason to be afraid of a sleeping hanyou. As she came towards Kagome's current position, the voice of a certain Myoga became a lot louder. "Oh thank goodness you're all right, Kagome!" he began. "I thought that master Inuyasha would have done you in for sure!" he said with a sigh, and was suddenly flattened via Kagome's index finger and thumb.

Myoga responded as he slowly drifted towards the ground. "Never mind." and with that thought he pondered to himself. 'I really should learn when to keep my mouth shut.'

Myoga (after regaining 3D form) explained to Kagome the process of which must take place in order for Inuyasha to take complete and full control of his youkai powers. And after a lot of explanation on a certain flea's part, Kagome took some time for the rest of the short ride home to think about Inuyasha.

'Jerk." she thought halfheartedly. 'What if Myoga hadn't been there to stop him? I may of lost you forever.' she continued to think on various other matters similar to this. 'Who would I laugh with? Who would keep me from danger? Who would I say 'sit' to.' she pondered, and chuckled about the last thought she had, but the other thoughts that came to her mind began to scare her. She still couldn't believe that he was willing to end it just like that, but she knew that he at least had a self-righteous reason. No second thought either, just like that. She refused to believe that it was possible, but none the less it was.

Kagome shook her head. 'No. None of that matters now. Inuyasha would tell me to move on from the past, even though it was only a few minutes ago.' She once again felt tears beginning to cry, but she held them back with all her might. And after a little while longer, she finally shook the thoughts from her head (or so she believed) and focused on a now pressing matter: Getting Miroku and the others out of bed to explain everything that just happened.

Kagome eventually managed to wake everybody up without too much resentment, and that thought is picked up here.

They all sat around a fire on a mat, outside of the tent; where of course they eagerly awaited Inuyasha's regaining of consciousness. But in the mean time, Kagome explained to Miroku and Sango why he was out so late at night and what had taken place. NEway, shortly after Kagome stopped explaining that, Inuyasha awoke from la la land.

Miroku jested on his situation. "So, having a bit of an anger problem, Inuyasha?" his jest was returned to with a death glare, as Inuyasha was not at all happy to have something jokingly be said at the time. And upon reception of the glare Miroku decided that enough was enough, so he stopped. Inuyasha looked around the campfire and took note that everyone was staring directly at him. "What?" he said sounding a bit annoyed, but was responded to with a more serious tone by Kagome. "Oh you know what, I just got finished filling everybody in about your little episode just now." Inuyasha looked at everyone in disgust and keh'd before he commented.

"I...never mind." Was all that he managed to get out as Kagome began to say what she had been waiting to say up until just now when Inuyasha woke up. "Anyway," she began. "Myoga here says that the only way to give Inuyasha the ability to control his youkai powers is to make him a youkai." She stated, making sure that Inuyasha had heard every word.

Sango and Miroku looked at Kagome a bit confused. "What do you mean, 'make him a youkai?'" began Sango. "We all know that he is a hanyou." Myoga answered her question quite informatively. "Yes, that may be true, Lady Sango. But as you should know, Lord Inuyasha seeks the Shikon Jewel to become a full-fledged youkai. Do you not recall this?" Sango almost smacked herself in realization of the amount of stupidity in her words. "Ah yes of course, how foolish of me." She admitted with a faint blush of embarrassment while Myoga continued. "Anyway, I am obligated to ask of you, my Lord, surely YOU knew of this?" he asked, directing his words towards Inuyasha, who feh'd and responded admittedly. "Yeah, I did."

Kagome's eyes widened at his response. "Then why did you try to kill yourself!" She questioned quite angrily, who was responded to by a confession from her hanyou friend. "Actually, I didn't really try to kill myself." Kagome became furious at his response. "What do you mean you didn't 'really try to kill yourself', was that all just a prank or something!" questioned an even more furious Kagome. "No, not a prank. Just a way to take you guys out of it. Said Inuyasha, preparing to explain a lot, and continued.

"Y'see, I know well that I need the shards of the sacred jewel to become a true full youkai." He began. "And by doing this I would be giving myself a youkai body, one that is able to control the power that I contain." Miroku interrupted his explanation. "Then why were you attempting to fake your own death?" who was responded to by a surefire answer.

"Because I wasn't sure that you guys would approve of it, and even if you did, I wouldn't want you around when I ate it just to be safe in case I went crazy or something. And if you thought I was dead I could have easily done what I intended to do without worrying anybody." He added, making clear his intentions. "Plus," he added once again. "I would need to get the jewel as soon as possible as to make sure that nothing happened to you guys in the mean time." He said as he completed his thought.

Kagome looked at Inuyasha and could feel that she was about to cry. "You jerk! I would've had no problem giving you the sacred jewel fragments I've got if I had known that! But NO! You had to go and put my emotions through that hell and scare me to death making me think that you were going to kill yourself!"

Inuyasha looked back at Kagome a little surprised. "Hey what are you getting so worked up for!" he asked rather loudly, not thinking before he spoke. "I was the one who was gonna die, not you, you idiot!" he stated once again not thinking about his words, and with that phrase Sango and Miroku sighed while a sweat drop appeared on the backs of both of their heads.

Kagome had had it. 'First he makes me think he's gonna kill himself, THEN he has the nerve to give off the impression that I shouldn't care about him! Not to mention he almost killed ME! What a jerk!' she thought, while Inuyasha wondered and became confused. "Now what are you mad about?" that did it, Kagome was steamed. "SIT!" she screamed, not even thinking about how mad that would make Inuyasha, who of course glared at her from his new spot on the ground all the while becoming more angry. "Okay, would you mind telling me WHY you're doing that!" he exclaimed as he hopped to his feet.

Kagome stood up and turned around. "Don't you get it?" she asked meekly, who was responded to by a confused silver haired hanyou. "Get what?" he asked just before Kagome responded. "That mabey I CARE about what happens to you?"

And with that she tossed her shards of the jewel to Inuyasha, giving him new light to the situation as she began to walk to the tent to get some sleep. The hanyou stood up, ready to give his opinion on the matter, when- "Hey, now wait a-" "SIT!" he was cut off by an enormous amount of dirt to his face.

Kagome continued on her way to the tent, and shortly reached her destination as Inuyasha sat up to pout. "Oi! Man I hate it when she does that! I don't know what the heck she's so mad about, I told her that I wasn't really gonna die! Geeze!" He sat there for quite a while muttering and grumbling to himself when he finally decided to wise up and ask Miroku about the situation. (But little did he know that Kagome was wide-awake in the tent just waiting to hear what Inuyasha had to say)

"Hey Miroku, what do you think about all this? About Kagome gettin' all ticked off and everything?" he asked, hoping to hear an honest answer from a monk that is not usually wise to trust. Miroku looked at Inuyasha for a moment, and came to the conclusion that he really didn't know why Kagome was so mad at him. "Inuyasha, do you have any common sense that all or should I say MOST men are born with?" the hanyou looked at Miroku full of confusion. "What the heck is that supposed to mean?" he asked grudgely, having absolutely no idea about what he was talking about. Miroku spoke his next few words with a sigh. "Inuyasha, what I'm trying to say is, don't you like Kagome? Just a little?" Inuyasha stared at Miroku angrily, due to his butting in on the current situation, and Kagome listened intently. Or at least Inuyasha believed that he was butting in.

"Hey that's none of your business, ya stupid pervert!" exclaimed Inuyasha, forgetting that it was HE who asked for Miroku's advice. Miroku sighed once more. "Do you want my help or not?" asked Miroku, who was beginning to feel a little agitated. "Y'know, come to think of it NO I DON'T! I'll just talk to Kagome myself tomorrow!" and with that he walked off from Miroku's presence and found a nice tree.

Inuyasha sat for the rest of the night wondering to himself just how he was going to apologize to Kagome, but couldn't think of a way. But instead of wasting his time on something that couldn't really be helped, he thought about where he could find some more jewel fragments. The ones he now has are purified, so he can't use them. But, there was ONE place that came to his mind. 'Tomorrow, we're gonna go see Kouga.'

I know, I know. Not too much action this time, but it WILL get better. And I'm sorry it's so short and a bit confusing but it's 1:00 in the morning and I'm screwed. So, R&R, see ya!


	6. Not In the Mood

Well well, what do you know? I'm FINALLY continuing this fic, and I am so sorry it took this long to update. My internet got shut down for the past two months, and I have had absolutely no inspiration to write whatsoever seeing as how I had no way to post. But I later obtained a floppy disk from a friend and now have a way to update! YAY! But don't get TOO excited though, because I get roughly one chance to use a cpu with internet every two weeks and considering the fact that I might not always have a chapter done when I come face to face with deadline is another story. But no worries, I probably will. And NEhoo, on with the fic!

Inuyasha awoke from his tree sat straight up to ponder on a few things. The most obvious being, "Why did I transform without reason like that last night and, why is Kagome so mad at me all of a sudden?" The other more or less significant questions that came to his mind were also a bit troublesome, (Even though quite a bit of them could easily be answered with some obvious answers) so he decided to speak to the one person, err, INSECT who had quite a few correct answers for a general amount of youkai problems; none other than, Myoga.

He hopped down out of the tree and listened to the sound that his kimono and hair made in the wind and salvaged the moment, but quickly returned to his quest to find a rather tiny informative. He tilted his head slightly lower and to the left and began to sniff the morning air. Thankfully, his nose would not be one to fail and he detected Myoga's scent and exact location within seconds. And after obtaining this knowledge, set out on the 15 to 20 foot walk towards the tent in Kirara's direction.

Upon nearing the campsite he spotted the neko and spoke to her in an old youkai language which was apparently a command to shake and, what do you know- Myoga flew off the cat and into Inuyasha's direction whom opened his right palm and caught the flea. Inuyasha looked at his closed hand a reopened it, as he began to make his usual unpleasant good morning.

"Hey, rise and shine! I need a few things answered!" he squabbled, giving poor Myoga little time to react to the amount of g-force he had quite recently received from Kirara's blasted shaking. None the less, he looked up and gazed at Inuyasha while his eyes focused and he made an attempt to respond to his lord's demands. "Ah, Lord Inuyasha. How can this Myoga be of assistance to you?" The hanyou got a certain satisfaction from these words and began to make a little distance between their conversation and the campsite.

After getting ample room to talk without the fear of eavesdropping, Inuyasha began to respond. "Well, first off and most importantly, why did I transform without reason last night?" Myoga folded his arms and nodded. "As I suspected would be your first question." ahem "Let me explain. In your most previous encounter with lord Sesshomaru, you somehow managed to wield to Kagome's pleas and reverse your transformation, correct?" he asked rhetorically, which was responded to by a "Yeah." "In doing this, you in a way, 'Halved' your transformation." Inuyasha interrupted. "Halved it?" "Yes, I will explain this as well." Myoga continued. "You see master, normally you need to kill atleast SOMETHING in your transformed state, otherwise there will be a chemical imbalance in your system and you will be in a way, incomplete. During your last transformation, you killed nothing. In fact even worse WILLINGLY YIELDED to pleas begging you to kill nothing. And when you reverted to your normal state, the chemical imbalance started to build up and eventually shot out of you." He finished, feeling a sense of pride upon a rather nifty completion of his explanation.

Inuyasha looked at Myoga with a kind of 'OOOOOhhhhh...That explains a lot' type of look on his face and after thanking Myoga for his first piece of knowledge, continued his question session with a few more items that picked at his brain. "Well, anyway, moving on; you got any idea why Kagome is so darn mad at me?"

Myoga just looked at Inuyasha and sighed a great sigh, but nonetheless prepared to answer the question with his own opinion from a third person point of view about their relationship. "My lord, have you not any concern for Kagome's well being? None whatsoever?" The hanyou almost pinched Myoga for asking such a stupid question, but for some reason, decided to respond slightly less as violently as he usually prefers.

"Of COURSE I do you stupid moron! How could you ask me such a ridiculous question!" "Now, now, don't be angry, I was merely building up to a comparison!" Responded a quick tounged flea, in a desperate attempt not to feel the wrath of Inuyasha's thumb and index finger. "What I was getting to is, how would you feel if Kagome was about to die for a more or less believable reason and it broke your heart, only to find that she was not at all serious, but concerned that you couldn't assist her in a matter and wanted to get out of your hair for a while? And even then, you found out later that you really COULD have been of assistance to her problem!"

Inuyasha thought on this for a moment, and quickly concluded. "Well, I, I'd be mad, I guess." he paused for a moment, but a moment it was, as he continued his thought verbally, giving Myoga no chance to speak. "But, I dunno, I just.I didn't know what to think! I mean, I didn't know that she cares about me all that much!" However THIS time, Myoga spoke. "Come now, M'lord, surely you do not speak the truth." Commented the little youkai, obviously having an answer within his question.

"I was just confused, I didn't want her hurt.Maybe I should go apologize to her." Myoga nodded in contempt and gave one final piece of advice. "Yes, that you should. Just do us ALL a favor and don't make us watch poor Kagome suffer anymore!" That would have been a perfect way to end his advice, but he just HAD to add that little phrase at the end of his sentence, which brought a few more questions to a certain hanyou's mind. "Hey what the heck does that mean! 'Make us watch Kagome suffer more!'"

The tiny flea responded quickly, as to make a fast exit of the scene. "M'lord, Kagome cares more for you than you think." And with that, he hopped down from Inuyasha's hand and darted off into the forest. Inuyasha felt incredibly stupid, mean, and inconsiderate all at the same time. 'Is that true?' he wondered. 'Awe, man! I've really been a jackass to her. I'm gonna go apologize right now!'

He began walking towards the tent and on the way, scolded himself possibly more crucially than anyone of any time ever has and began to feel more angry with himself than he ever had.  
Kagome tossed and turned in her sleep, unaware that she was, and really began to become frightened.

"Inuyasha.Inuyasha." She repeated over and over again as images of a deceased hanyou came to her dream, now a nightmare. The memories she had from the previous night haunted her like nothing before. The one that really bothered her was the last thing she remembered was what she watched Inuyasha do before Myoga came to stop him. Mentally, she screamed out in terror and started to cry in her dream and the real world. "Inuyasha.INUYASHA!" her screams came to a climax but strangely no one heard her while they slept.

Well, no one that is, except Inuyasha who was conveniently on his way to her anyway. After hearing the second set of cries for his name, he wasted no time dashing over to the tent and hurried in to her side. He stared at her as she slept, not exactly in the soundest way she ever had before, and really came to realize just how much he cared for her. He felt a sudden calm come over him, just by being in her presence. 'How could I have thought.' he felt so angry with himself he almost struck his own face. But other matters called to his attention.

Judging by the density in her scent, he could tell that she really must be having one heck of a bad dream, and that scent was so important to him he almost grew angry at the dream. But instead acted logically and grabbed Kagome's hand and squeezed it rather firmly. And after not too long of thinking of how to wake her and what he would say, Kagome subconsciously called out his name again, giving him the perfect chance to respond.

"Inyasha!" she yelled once more, and the hanyou seized the moment. He let his right hand hold her left, and he put his left hand through her hair, and stroked it a bit. It was so soft that he just wanted to do that all day; and after taking a second or two of more staring at her frightened face, responded: "Yes, Kagome?" Even though it was not at all loud, in fact not even a normal conversing level, he knew that she would hear him. He didn't know why, but he did.

The sound of his voice caught Kagome by surprise, and she quickly awoke and stared directly at his face, in complete happiness. It alarmed her that he was there all of a sudden, but she didn't mind. Instinct came over her and "Oh, Inuyasha! I'm sorry for this, but I'll explain later." she said as she threw herself into his arms and embraced him like she never had. Both of them knew that it was all right, and both appreciated the returned hug.

"Kagome, I'm sorry I was such an idiot before. I was just-" "No, don't worry about it. It was my fault too." She interrupted rather quickly still quite happy to see that her nightmare wasn't a reality. "I was just a little upset, and I let things get out of hand." She continued, as sorry as she could be. However sincere this was, Inuyasha was not finished with his thought. "No, Kagome. It was MY fault. I was an ass and I didn't think about how you felt and wasn't sure of what you thought. Pleases forgive me."

The young miko looked up from her knew rather comfy spot on his chest and thought she was going to cry. "Really, you mean that?" she asked in hope that this wasn't a joke. "Yes, I do. And if it's no trouble, I'd like to make it up to you sometime." He responded trying to think of a way to do so. And while he thought, Kagome still struggled to believe her fortune and amount of happiness she got from hearing those words from the one she truly cared about. She knew for some time that he at least CARED for her, but she wasn't sure for how long and how much.

She then realized how rude she was being by losing her words and forgetting to respond. And before she could apologize Inuyasha began to speak. "Please say something, I'm gonna feel like an idiot if you say no." Kagome's heart jumped, and now SHE felt like an idiot. "Oh, I'm sorry, I was just not expecting that, I'm really glad you feel this way." The hanyou she was speaking to now realized HIS fortune in the matter and began to gladden as well. "Oh, thanks. But anyway, how can I make it up to ya?"

He asked in a rather upbeat tone, giving Kagome a new level of comfort to the conversation. She struggled to think of something, but just couldn't think of anything appropriate. "I'm sorry, I really have no idea how.but maybe we could make it up to each other somehow!" This gave Inuyasha new light to the conversation, and he accepted the idea. "Alright, that sounds good. But I still don't see why YOU feel the need to apologize." Commented Inuyasha, in all honesty wondering just that.

"Well anyway, I've got no idea how to do this, so, why don't you think of some things that humans traditionally do to tell each other that they're sorry." Kagome thought on this and smacked herself mentally anyway in realization of what this could mean. Something she had wanted to do for so long, but the chance never came and fate had not yet allowed it; up until just now. She spoke rashly, fearing that there would be no other chance for this to occur, and with a deep breath let her words flow. "I've got just the thing." She began, desperately trying to muster up the courage to finish the thought. "How about you take me out on a date sometime?" Inuyasha was so pleased with the thought of Kagome accepting his apology that he instinctively said, "You got it!" Giving Kagome ample reason to: Have her heart skip a beat, blush as red as she ever had, shed a tear and thank Inuyasha with the fullest extent of her heart.

"Wow! You really mean it?" and was responded with "Uh-huh. But just wait a few days until we get this whole full youkai stuff figured out, okay?" Kagome was so excited she felt she could run for ever, but maturely held it in and thanked the silver haired hanyou. "Thank you, so much. This really means a lot to me." "No prob, and thank YOU. But anyway, get dressed and get every one else up to come outside to let me explain every thing to you guys." Which was, for Kagome, incredibly easy to comply with. "Kay, I'll be right out, see you in a minute."

And with that Inuyasha got up and after about facing, began to head out of the tent. And just before he reached the door, Kagome stopped him. "Inuyasha," "Yeah?" "Thanks."

Well, what do you think? Not bad for 2 months of not writing, and again I apologize for the late update, and anyone who reviewed that I didn't get to I'm sorry, there was no way I could respond. NEway, chao, tell me what you think: is this happening too fast, does my writing seem different, or any other comments/suggestions you may have are more than welcome!


	7. Instinct

How's it going? Long time no read! Well, write for me. Come to think of it, no write for a lot of you guys too! I mean, come on! Review a little eh? I'm not saying this in an ungrateful way, and don't get me wrong I AM thankful for the reviews that I've gotten, but I know that plenty more than HALF if the people that are reading this fic aren't reviewing. Sorry if this is somehow offensive or what not, but it just really makes my day when people review and gives me a whole new level of inspiration to write! So please, if you read, give a small review. I don't even care if it's just one sentence of criticism, just please, review. Thanks.

Inuyasha paced impatiently outside of the tent as he waited for Kagome to awake the others and bring them outside. The matter was a rather important one, and it had already been ten minutes since he asked Kagome to wake the others up and bring them out. As he walked around in the grass, which now had an inner circle and a lower level of height thanks to how many times he had stepped on each blade, he pondered to himself just how long it took to become conscious and walk a few feet.

He knew it wasn't Kagome's fault, his never failing ears told him that she had tried to wake everyone up and inform them on the matter at hand; but rather every one else's fault for simply not getting up. "Oi!" he mumbled. "That's it!" continued to exclaim the irritable hanyou as he stopped his perpetual pacing and made his way towards the tent. And as he approached the tiny little port-a-house the chatter of a few certain humans became more clear to him.

He stopped just before reaching the door and listened closely for a recent uncertain phrase that caught his attention. He wasn't sure, but he could have sworn he just heard Kagome whisper to Sango: "Guess what? Inuyasha just asked me out!" He again, wasn't sure of this so he decided to use stealth, and do a little eavesdropping.

Sango looked at Kagome and pondered on how she would respond to this. She was of course, happy for her, but wasn't sure whether or not Inuyasha would end up to be just one big disappointment. Because as far as she knew, thanks to a few months of experience, Inuyasha was pretty good at just ticking Kagome right off. But she somehow managed to put all doubt aside and place some faith in Kagome, and found a way to give the hanyou a bit too. So she put a smile on and gave her congrats.

"That's great Kagome, I'm so happy for you!" she said halfly so and halfly not. Which turned out to be a waste of thought, because regardless of what Sango would say, Kagome would be near completely unaware and totally disregard any negative thought at this point, due to overflowing joy. The young miko now was open on suggestions on what they would do for their first date, so she decided to see what her friend had in mind. After all, Sango has a great deal more experience with youkai than she.

"So, where should we go when he takes me?" she began, not realizing that she had already done something wrong. Sango quickly objected to this, in an attempt to spare Kagome some trauma.

"I'm glad you asked me, or you would been really disappointed at the end of that date. She began, as she pretended to wipe some sweat off of her forehead. This obviously, as Sango knew it would, caused question to arise within her young miko friend. "Why is that? I haven't even thought up any ideas yet." She said in respondence, growing more confused by the second.

Sango again mentally gave herself a sigh of relief, now having an opportunity to save her friend the heartbreak of a failed initial date. "Kagome, there isn't much I'm going to say on this matter, but.let him decide where you go, okay? You probably would've figured this out on your own anyway, however nonetheless I told you. The rest you WILL figure out; trust me."

Kagome wasn't sure why, but for some reason decided to take Sango's advice. She wasn't exactly sure of what 'the rest' was, not that it made much of a difference to her; she was still just grateful that Inuyasha decided to take out period, regardless of where it took place.

Meanwhile, a rather irritable hanyou became somehow MORE irritable and had long since decided to stop listening to Kagome's rather short conversation with Sango. Thirteen Minutes had been plenty long enough for a person to: Gain consciousness, stand, and walk a few feet. He felt he had waited far too long, and he let them all know it.

"Hey! Will you guys get out here already! Geeze! I sent Kagome in there 10 minutes ago to wake you guys and you still aren't up?" he screamed at the tent, quite obviously not happy about how lazy they had all become. "I ain't mad at Kagome, it's you idiots for taking so long!" he commented, being sure to clarify that it wasn't Kagome's fault.

With that, he turned around, sat cross-legged and folded his arms, awaiting the appearance of his comrades. And sure enough, within thirty seconds they were all out there; each with a different reason. Kagome, because right about now she would do just about anything that Inuyasha requested of her; Miroku, because he had a bone to pick with Inuyasha for getting so mad and yelling at him; Sango, because something was obviously pretty important to cause Inuyasha to wake them all up (He usually doesn't do that); and Shippo, because he feared for his life.

Miroku was the first to speak, and did so without hesitation. "Inuyasha, what reasoning do you have as to raise your voice at me? I have done nothing of offense!" exclaimed the monk, who was rather enjoying his perverted dream.

However, also spoken without hesitation was Inuyasha's response to the monk. "I'll tell ya why you lazy bum! Because I asked Kagome to wake you up 15 minutes ago and you were right the hell asleep all that while she tried to get you conscious!" replied an irritated Inuyasha, not at all intimidated by the monk's 'you woke me up I'm pissed' act.

And on that note, the hanyou decided to continue. "And anyway, how long do you expect to live in our world if you can't wake up even with someone's assistance!" He commented, making a rather good point. In fact such a good point, that Miroku decided not to respond and kept silent. Inuyasha decided to make sure that he had won the argument, so he waited a few seconds to see if or if not the monk would say anything back.

And during this silence, Kagome made a little confession. "Well, I'm sorry Inuyasha.it's actually MY fault.I, I was too busy talking to Sango about something, (before Inuyasha had come to the tent to listen) and I forgot to try to get them up. I'm sorry." After hearing this the hanyou just simply closed his eyes and tilted his head to the lower left. He was silent for a few seconds, and no one was certain of what his reaction would be. But most of them were leaning towards 'oh boy, here we go again...'

But nonetheless he remained silent and after a few more seconds he finally spoke. "Well then, never mind. I'm sure you had a good reason for whatever it was you were talking about."

He said, leaving the group in a gaping awe at his surprising and sudden calm. "And Miroku, I must apologize. But it wouldn't do you any harm to become a lighter sleeper!" he added, being sure to express at least a little annoyance.

Miroku was as well, quick to a calm, now satisfied with the apology. "Hmph. I accept your apology." He said smugly. However he felt the urge to continue on speaking, for there was a question on his mind that could use a nice solid answer. "But, even IF I took even 25 minutes to get up, why did your anger rise to a level of THAT intensity? I do not recall even recently irritating you."

It was a decently puzzling question, one that no one in the group even had an idea of as to the answer. Sure Inuyasha is an irritable guy, but not so much to the point where he'll get all out pissed at every little bump in the road. And so, within the second or two time period after Miroku asked the question, Myoga took the liberty of hopping up to the monk's shoulder from Kirara's back, and spoke his more than likely factual opinion on the matter.

"Ah, yes" he began "Allow me to explain. Normally even master Inuyasha would not anger to that point for a mere over sleeping incident, but recently as I have told him there has been a chemical imbalance within his veins causing him to be FAR more irritable and having a much more troublesome anger problem. In extreme situations making him more violent, and vise versa in every day mishaps more irritable."

That seemed to just about do it for the gang, and now the only question on their mind was why he had brought them out here in the first place. "Well, now that that's that, why have you woken and brought us all out here so early in the morning?" Asked a rather puzzled youkai slayer.

Inuyasha's left ear twitched in respondence to a prompt to reset course to accomplish what he had recently attempted to do, and he spoke up. "Well, now that were finally getting to that," he began.

Inuyasha told the group about his youkai blood problem and other related areas.

After a nifty yet lengthy explanation of recent events, Inuyasha stood and faced every one. "Now look, I want you guys to just bear with me on this for a while, and in the mean time we'll spend the next few weeks in search of some UN-purified Shikon shards to kill off the chemical imbalance within me so I can be restored to normal."  
"And then again, this isn't your guys' problem so all except Kagome don't have to come if you don't want to." He continued, not realizing the mistake he just made. And not that Kagome didn't want to go, she very much wanted to; but she didn't like the idea that she HAD to go.

"Now wait just a minute, why do I HAVE to go?" demanded an annoyed miko. And for some reason this question just shot to Inuyasha's brain and the answer out his mouth. "Because there is NO WAY I'm letting you aimlessly wander around this era without my protection; what if something happened to you, then what!" He responded quite hastily. In fact a little too hastily as he immediately regretted his tone of voice.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to yell." He said 'catching himself.' Kagome also felt the urge to let of a little steam by shouting, but Inuyasha's concern for her just melted her anger and she became meek. "Oh, no it's alright, I was just wondering. Sorry, I guess it was a pretty stupid question." She said quite sincerely. And then suddenly had an idea.

"But, wait, what if I went with-" she began, but was cut off by an instant objection from the responding hanyou. "Uh uh, not gonna happen. There isn't a chance in all the hells I'd leave you alone around Miroku for several weeks! I do NOT trust him in areas like that."

Kagome thought on that and eventually became even more pleased for the amount of concern and thought that Inuyasha had put into for the sake of her safety. She smiled and looked at the ground but said nothing more.

Miroku also had some thought on this statement, and felt a little embarrassed. But the truth was, no matter how many scenarios came to his mind, Inuyasha's concern was for good reason. And also saying nothing more, he put his hand behind his head, closed his eyes and smiled; in an attempt to 'loosen up the tension' in everyone's minds about facts they all knew were true.

The awkward silence continued to stick around for short while longer, and after the giant sweat-drops on the backs of everyone's heads disappeared, Inuyasha came along to explaining the rest of which he intended.

"Anyway, my plan is to go the den of the youkai wolves and see if Kouga knows anything on any recent jewel shard appearances. And if not, we search aimlessly and hope Kagome senses some."

Miroku and the others ok'd the idea, but there was one concern the monk had that was important enough to discuss. "That sounds fine, but in the mean time, how do we suppress you're transformations?" Everyone knew that this question was vital and they all decided to wait and listen intently to see if there was anything any of them could do to help, but sadly, there was but not.

"That's the problem guys. There isn't."

Whadda ya think? Let me know! And you anyway, I as well noticed that my writing was a bit different these past two times around. Terribly sorry, I'll do my best to fix it. And now that I've got the internet again, I can promise at least a chapter every two weeks at the max. BTW, in case any of you are rather impatient with this kind of stuff (and I don't blame you) a friend of mine named phantomgamer01 is writing a fic about how Kouga gets his mate later on after Kagome's hand has been taken. It was originally going to be the long after sequel to this fic, but things got changed around so, not anymore. But I highly recommend reading it, it's called "What about me?" Even if you don't like Kouga all that much (like me) it IS a good fic. Surprisingly well written and intriguing. Check it out sometim! Anyway, chao, until next week!


	8. En Garde

Before I continue this story, I must thank you all for reviewing. You have no idea how good you guys made me feel with the kind words you have sent. Thank you SOOOOO much, you guys rock! BTW, sorry this update is a bit late.

-Goldeneyes86- Well, I'd say we think alike. That was actually my plan from the very beginning. Props on paying attention to detail, I'm very impressed.

Disclaimer: Guess what? I don't own Inuyasha! Which may be a good thing for some of you...lol

A silence fell over everyone as each member of the group contemplated just how wise it would be to travel with Inuyasha for the few weeks that he had planned. None were certain of their safety, and all of them silently compared the risks and dangers along with back up plans for the journey that lie ahead of them.

Well, all except Kagome, that is. She was the sole being who somehow knew, regardless of the situation, would be safe around Inuyasha. He had protected her for so long now, and she was alive up to this point, so why suddenly back out when the going gets just a little tuffer?

She gathered her nerve, and walked firmly over to Inuyasha's left side and gave the group a piece of her mind.

"Oh, come on! You're not all gonna back out on him now are ya! How can you guys get all jumpy and cower in insurance at the first little thing!" she had caught everyone's undivided attention, and knew she had one chance to convince them all other wise before they packed their bags and left.

"You gotta remember when Inuyasha helped you guys out! Sango," she began, grabbing the slayer's attention, "Think about when Naraku turned you against him and you sought after his life, yet Inuyasha gave you a second chance and decided not to kill you even after you had tried to kill him multiple times! Or how about that time when you thought Kohaku was still under Naraku's control and you tried to kill HIM, but Inuyasha stopped you in the nick of time and convinced you that he wasn't?"

Kagome decided that that was enough reasoning for Sango and was left with no other choice but to allow her to think upon her decision, so she turned her attention to the monk.

"Miroku, think back when you were alone and holding off those youkai with the last of your strength, and just as your barrier collapsed Inuyasha got to you and used the Wind Scar to save you, even after you had decided to go it alone." With that, Miroku made little thought of his decision. She was right, Inuyasha hadn't given up on him, so how could he give up on Inuyasha so soon?"

And even then, there was yet another member of the party that might need a little convincing. Shippo, however was expected by Kagome to follow her wherever she went, might still not have his mind made up. "Come on Shippo, remember when Inuyasha helped you avenge your father's death? I don't even need to say anymore. That should be enough."

She left the group to ponder on her words and she herself turned to Inuyasha to give her own support. She looked him straight in the eye, almost so deeply that it nearly caused the both of them to blush. "And how could I leave you now?"

The hanyou did his best to contemplate what had just happened. He hadn't really thought of any reasons as to why all the members of the group should stick with him. Actually, he saw it perhaps in their best interests to ditch him and simply let him solve his own problem. Yet Kagome had quickly come up with at least one reason for everyone to continue the fight as his comrades.

He wondered why his young miko friend was being so nice to him, and so suddenly too! She was usually a fair person to get along with, but not usually THIS considerate. He tried to respond to her as she shot him her gaze of affection, but he simply couldn't get the words out.

He thought for a little longer and finally decided to let his instincts guide him. "Uh, thanks, Kagome. I don't know what to say; other than I guess I'm surprised you remembered all that stuff."

He said what he could up until when he ran out of words and began to stutter. "I, uh-" Kagome shushed him. "Don't worry, I owed you one." Inuyasha had now more than ever truly lost his words, and just decided not to speak.

Kagome then turned her back to him and faced the group. "Well guys, what's it gonna be?" Her words quickly went through the minds of the others and they all wanted to immediately respond. But unfortunately for most of them, Miroku quickly grabbed the floor.

"You are right, Kagome. I would be selfish to desert Inuyasha now." He began, as he turned his attention towards the hanyou. "Please forgive me, Inuyasha." He said as he bowed.

Sango as well made her apology. "Please, me as well, Inuyasha. I'd have been a fool to even consider the other option." She spoke as she also bowed. However after they spoke, Shippo kept silent and stared blankly at the ground, for reasons he held to himself.

Kagome, having now accomplished what she wanted to do, felt substantially proud of herself, finally getting a chance to greatly assist Inuyasha; a chance of which she desperately desired.

Inuyasha looked at Kagome and simply continued to search for words. And it wasn't long before he finally found them, but sadly at this time his general lack of trust for humans, coupled with the chemical imbalance within him shot out of his mouth, making some more than less disappointing responses.

"Well, thanks, guys, I guess. But remember, it's all of your decisions for coming with me; all except Kagome that is. Just keep that in mind and don't expect me to always have all of your backs." He said, sounding rather irritated and for some reason a bit of anger was detected in his voice. Everyone's eyes opened wide at this in complete astonishment that he wasn't totally grateful. Miroku eyeballed the hanyou and gave his opinion.

"Inuyasha! How can you speak to us in such a tone after such a recent apology!" The monk's words were in just, and Inuyasha suddenly felt different. "I...I don't know, I...I suddenly felt really mad for some reason...I'm sorry..." he said in an honest tone as a blank and confused look crept it's way onto everyone's faces.

Inuyasha lifted his palms toward his face and he stared into their centers. His pupils widened substantially and he desperately searched for an explanation as to why he felt almost completely different. Silence remained for a few seconds more, when suddenly a flare like sound was instantly present and instantly absent.

Inuyasha's body was outlined with a slight red, and his eyes flashed the same color. This caught everyone's attention and they all quickly ran to his side. Kagome was the first to call out to him. "Inuyasha, are you alright!" She nearly demanded as she questioned whether or not it was safe to hold his hand.

But before anyone else had a chance to say anything, Inuyasha lost the strength to stand and he fell to his knees, supporting his upper body with his open palms. Sweat began to fall from his face like a warm summer's storm and a fever burst out from the abyss to his skull and it enraptured his mind.

It was arguably one of the most painful things he had ever experienced and he began to growl in pain and frustration. The overwhelming headache he received from this quickly became unbearable and resembled the pain of an unquenchable fire, only inside of his head.

Fear swept Kagome and the others as the young miko knelt down next to her hanyou friend and she instinctively grabbed his hand. She squeezed it between both of her own, and she did her best to comfort him while she also made her best attempt to take control of the situation. "Sango! Get some water from the river and bring it here as fast as you can! Shippo, help her." She began, as everyone reacted upon instinct and complied with the orders. "And Miroku, do you know anything on reducing fevers?" (she would have just given him a few aspirins, but for one, Inuyasha's body was probably too strong for those to affect him. And two, they were at her house; which was a considerable distance away.)

Miroku gave a tremendous attempt to remain calm and said what he knew. "Yes, I believe so." He began as Sango grabbed Shippo and hopped on Kirara after telling the neko to head towards the river. The priest sat down cross- legged and pulled a scroll out of his cloak.

"It would be embarrassing if I didn't." he said as he proceeded to perform his little ritual. Meanwhile, Kagome had managed to lay Inuyasha down and turn him over on his back. She continued to hold his hand, and found that the only beneficial thing to do would be to pray.

After doing so, she remained where she was and tried desperately to think up a reason as to why this happened. She pondered for a few minutes more until her thought pattern was interrupted by the return of Sango and Shippo with three buckets of fresh, freezing cold water.

Sango bolted off of Kirara with two of the buckets and quickly proceeded to Kagome's side. "Here Kagome, I hope there is enough for what you need." Kagome nodded, and despite her confusion as to how they went to the river and returned so quickly, gave her gratitude as Sango motioned for Shippo to hurry over with his pail as well.

The young miko thanked Sango once more and proposed an idea as to what they should do. "Well, I guess the only thing we CAN do besides give him bit to drink would be to dump the buckets on his body." She said as she indicated the sweat pouring off of the 'hanyou's' brow. However little did she know, Inuyasha, with his last bit of consciousness, was attempting in an enormous way to keep his body temperature relatively low so his tremendous body heat wouldn't burn his friends; in a rather severely way, too.

Kagome picked up one of the buckets with her right hand, and gripped it with her inner right arm (much like a football) and guided its end to Inuyasha's mouth. "Here, drink this." She offered as she lowered the bucket and began to tilt it.

The water slowly began to pour out and while airborne gathered a higher pace. However, just as it hit his face, the most unexpected thing happened. The water made contact, and instead of quenching his tongue, it gave him an icy slap of 'bam, here I am,' and completely threw off his concentration of lowering his body heat.

The hanyou's eyes continued to flash red and white on and off, when suddenly his golden eyes and pupils returned for a last, sweet moment. He focused his sight on Kagome and with his last conscious breath, tried harder than ever to not transform, but to no avail. His veins began to double in size, his heart's repetitions quadrupled, and the purple marks on his cheeks became evident.

He took one last look at Kagome, and all he managed to get out, was "RUN!" and with that last signal his eyes flared red, destroying the golden ones in their place. A few seconds of hope remained as Kagome did her best to take Inuyasha's advice and she quickly rose to her feet, shortly before about facing and darting off towards a tree to hide behind. The others did so as well, and then hell itself was unleashed.

Inuyasha's eyes emitted an evident red glow, almost evilly. The sweat that was on his face soon became no more, as his body temperature rose to such a degree, the sweat sizzled right off of his entire body. Even his Kimono began to slightly give away, but not completely. However though, despite his tediously scorching outfit, he sat up slowly and identified his surroundings.

His nose told him that nearby was a male and female adult human, a large female neko youkai, a tiny male kitsune. But for some reason the third human he smelled seemed to have a different aura about her. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something about her was simply irresistible. It enraptured him, as to something beyond sensible compare. Something subconsciously told him that this person was direly important, and he instantly gave in to that thought. And among even ALL of his instincts and subconscious knowledge, something about this particular girl's scent intrigued him to no end, driving him to the brink of insanity that as to why even now it seemed just as important to him as it was lovely.

He laid back down and swung his legs back over his head and then the opposite way, utilizing that force to swing his body forward and upward, like a no handed spring-up. His feet landed firmly without sound, and he began his search as to where this poorly described as heavenly scent could be.

With one intake of oxygen through his nose he instantly located where this human was and out of no where gained the desire to protect this human being. He proceeded to walk towards a tree in the eastern direction of his current location in hopes of seeing this person behind it, when suddenly, out of the blue, a powerful scent of a youkai who sought destruction made its way towards his location.

Inuyasha spun around in this scent's direction and darted off into the air at speeds, which no human could comprehend. The sheer force that his legs put off on their own was enough to crush a rhinoceros's skull inside and out over one thousand fold. In his place was a slight crater and the smoke it emitted seemed to dash after the youkai.

Inuyasha held his ki about him and began to instinctively store it up for a later attack. He breezed through the air for a few seconds more, then landed in the brush. He wasted no time and darted off towards the direction of this scent that perhaps threatened the person he now wanted to protect.. This scent became more and more powerful by the millisecond and Inuyasha wasted no time seeking it out so he could destroy it, and fulfill his instinct to protect the specially scented human.

There was more than simply that reason, however. Even though his urge to protect the human was now a must, the sheer fact that he was in his full youkai state fueled his desire to destroy something/someone even more.

He eventually began to quite rapidly pick up the pace as he ran. It seemed as though he became quicker and more powerful by the second; of course this ever newly gained power was just more fuel for his desire to test out his new skills. He ran for a short time more until he leapt out of the under brush and ended up landing in what his nose and eyes told him to be an open field, a somewhat familiar place that seemed to be a fitting one for the battle he sought.

Inuyasha waited a few seconds more for this entity to approach and he began to growl without realizing it. That impatience however was just then put aside as the youkai he sought landed ever so swiftly a mere few hundred feet in front of him, and stared him down the field.

The youkai had apparently shadow darted to the location so he rose from his right knee down position and stood tall. This youkai stared at Inuyasha but wasted no time preparing for their battle. It reached over to its left shoulder and seemed to begin unhooking some type of metallic chest piece from itself. After the metal had landed, it reached over to its right shoulder and removed perhaps some large cloud type thing, Inuyasha wondered. But it mattered not. The cloud flew from the youkai's shoulder off into the distance as the wind began to pick up.

The enemy youkai's eyes then reddened, much like Inuyasha's had, and he rose his right hand to his face and cracked his knuckles; with the ring and index finger remaining in a partial fist position, and the thumb, middle, and index finger in a claw like fashion. A green mist emitted from this hand and his aura became a visible dark bluish purple. Inuyasha's aura also became visible, however his was a dark and thick red.

The enemy youkai took one last look at Inuyasha before it braced itself and spoke in a tongue that Inuyasha no longer understood.. "Now, Inuyasha, you can truly fight this Sesshomaru!"

And that's a wrap! Comments and the likes, are very welcome!


	9. When Something Happens To

I know, I know. It's late. Sorry, I've been going through a lot lately and I haven't been able to write...until NOW! This chapter is more than likely going to be one of my favorite chapters yet! I love fight scenes, and I've got as long as I need to put in detail today! grins evilly Mwahahahaha! Oh, and BTW I got a review, which pointed out the fact that Sesshomaru's swords hadn't yet been removed from his sash. Well, since I'll have to change that later, for now Sesshomaru's swords are with Jaken and Rin. But all else aside, enjoy chapter 9!

Sesshomaru and Inuyasha stared at each other as they both stood, braced to gather energy. However, it was only Sesshomaru who still held his hand in front of him as his youki began to rise. Inuyasha knew not of the youkai's actions, and began to growl in anger.

Inuyasha's powers at this point were all pretty much by instinct, and most of what he did was acted completely upon just that. His anger and will to protect the human was rising to a penetrable climax and he began to show his fiery red battle aura.

The red that was also in his eyes was no longer that of merely his pupils, or physical appearance, but now his sheer battle miasma glowed through his eyes making them a bright, blood thirsty red. He began to growl, and he bared his fangs at his enemy. This would normally be a warning, a final sign giving the opponent one last chance to back down, but not in Inuyasha's current state.

This was a battle cry that just began to expose itself, which would eventually build up and give an all out roar. His voice showed few signs of intellect, as his anger rose as well as his strength. The miasma that now surrounded him became so potent, that the very earth seemed to shake. Small rocks and pebbles near him slightly began to rise, and the tall grass which was also near him heated and eventually caught fire.

Sesshomaru began to growl as well as HIS true features began to show themselves. His eyes also reddened, and the marks on his cheeks became slightly more jagged; giving a visible truth that these ones shared the same father.

The bluish purple aura that surrounded Sesshomaru also became more potent, as he took one last look at his brother before their fight began. He thought to himself for a moment, and remembered the plan that he had come up with and reason he had for coming here. "Inuyasha, if you can understand me, I ask you now the whereabouts of your comrades."

This question however fell on deaf ears as the last bit of Inuyasha's personality was swept from his transformed body, and he gave the only response he knew how to give. His eyes reddened to an absolute climax and he let out a mighty howl. A howl of howls, straight from the abyss; one that seemingly tore a hole through time and space itself. It was of such magnitude, that the sheer power it put off caused Sesshomaru's sight to be displayed to him momentarily in black and white.

This shocking response caused even the mighty Sesshomaru to clench from decibel amount and even somewhat in fear. But he quickly gathered himself, as he knew that he was perfectly capable of such a feat in HIS transformed state.  
He feh'd to himself. 'Surely his friends heard that. They will no doubt be here within five minutes. I will tell them then of my proposition.'

Every other thought in both warriors minds were set aside at this point, and without even thinking they shot off at each other nearly too fast for the human eye to see. The force they put off caused a small whirlwind in both directions, and they began their fight long before either dispersed.

They both began with a rather signature attack, as Inuyasha landed with his right leg and pushed off with it as well giving him the force he needed bring down a mighty and slightly altered version of the Sounkutettso. Sesshomaru purposely ran into this in an attempt for a fake out. But he shortly realized that it was he who became faked out, as he felt absolutely no force from Inuyasha's claw marks which had remained in the air.

The marks soon dispersed and Inuyasha's image flashed before Sesshomaru and reappeared behind him before giving him time to react. Inuyasha then dragged his arm through the air and cut Sesshomaru square in the back, but was left with the repercussions of this move and spun while airborne, giving Sesshomaru ample time to spin around and land one good right uppercut to Inuyasha's jawbone.

This force sent Inuyasha flying into the air, but not too long after he began his little flight, he kept his ki about him and used his internal energy to give a stopping force and spin him in the direction corresponding to Sesshomaru. He used the remaining ki he had from his force opposition and shot off towards the one he once knew as his brother.

The youkai lord observed this and quickly devised a counter attack. But this time, he suspected a counter move so he readied himself into a right back stance. His left shoulder was risen just enough so his left arm was able to naturally stay just left of his left most cheek mark and his hand remained next to that mark in an open handed claw like fashion.

He put about 75 of his body weight on his left leg as the toes of that foot faced north, and his right leg's ankle was in front of him on a line with his left ankle as his right toes faced west. His face and right arm also were directed west, and the right arm was about a foot in front of his eyes at eye level. His torso and hips faced north, and all that was left to do was to wait for Inuyasha to reach him so he could counter attack.

Inuyasha shadow darted down towards Sesshomaru and prepared to claw him as he flew at about a 45 degree angle while his left knee was risen to his torso and left leg extended just enough to reveal his open handed claw forms resting about faced and risen just below his hips.

Sesshomaru reassured his stance as Inuyasha's image became closer and closer until it was just about time to strike. Sesshomaru cleared his mind and awaited Inuyasha's fake out move, but was unable to sense where his image would reappear.

And in that moment, sheer horror struck him in realization that there wasn't going to be a fake out move, but it was too late to dodge! All he could do was brace for impact as Inuyasha used his ki to stop himself just before he hit Sesshomaru and spun around 6 times within half a second, in order to gather the force needed to put Sesshomaru out of action for quite a while.

He then decided that the force required was ready, and he let loose his claw attack blindly at Sesshomaru's body. The force and speed of the attack was just enough to boggle Sesshomaru's mind and all moving things stopped for a moment. The attack created a sizzling crater where Sesshomaru had stood, and Inuyasha used the remaining g-force to spin himself around and land with one knee up, one knee down, and a hand on the ground, the other extended in the air. This also caused a small sizzling crater, and the smoke from both cleared just in time to see the after image of his claws and a badly injured Sesshomaru.

The youkai lord had managed to dodge a good portion of the blow, (thanks to how blindly Inuyasha had swung at him) but the sheer after force that it put off was enough to leave one hell of a mark on Sesshomaru. His upper kimono was ripped nearly completely off, however the lower portion was only slightly torn. But this quite obviously was not even hardly a contributor to his anger.

He was mainly angry with himself for not foreseeing such a blow, but nonetheless naturally agitated that his younger brother nearly killed him again. He spent a few more precious seconds scolding himself, but rather quickly found that it was both childish and foolish so he refocused his attention on the fight.

Sesshomaru gathered his ki and rose his right fist as he shadow darted towards Inuyasha while he let his other arm and legs flow freely in the wind. He quickly closed the distance between him and his brother and let loose the punch of which he was nearly certain would miss-and so it did.

Inuyasha foresaw the attack and it was almost embarrassing, but dodged anyway using his ki to swing his body around Sesshomaru and prepared to punch HIM in the back. But surely Sesshomaru is more cunning as to fall for the same trick twice. The youkai lord used his current g-force to flip around backwards and land an upperpart front kick on Inuyasha from below, causing the 'hanyou's' head to slam into the ground.

Sesshomaru then reached his right arm as far back as his body would allow and focused his Dokacho (poison claw) attack into the direct center of Inuyasha's shoulder blades; causing him to growl in pain. The youkai lord then did his best to subdue Inuyasha by forcing him into the ground with that same fist; but quite unfortunately for him, to no avail.

Inuyasha spun around inside the mini crater that Sesshomaru had created and grabbed his hand with both of his. He then, using that leverage, pulled Sesshomaru in and bit his face, causing him to drop his guard long enough for Inuyasha to grab Sesshomaru's right arm with his left.

Using his now more dangerous leverage, he curled his legs up to his chest and pulled Sesshomaru in for a nice double kick to the stomach. But that's not all. He tightened his grip on Sesshomaru even more and spun around so that the youkai lord was now closer to the ground.  
And THEN, he landed on the ground (still with his grip) and pushed off straight up, causing the rest of Sesshomaru's body to dangle in the air. They then came to a stop at about 250 feet in the air and the hanyou devised his next attack. Only now Sesshomaru had had about enough.

Sesshomaru used Inuyasha's grip on his hands to swing his legs up to his younger brother's head and get a nice good grip around his neck. Sesshomaru then tightened the grip and twisted his legs in an attempt to get Inuyasha to drop his guard just long enough for Sesshomaru to free his arms. And so it happened.

Sesshomaru then spun several times in the air before using his ki to shadow dart towards the ground at a speed, which COULDN'T be detected by the human eye. He then, just before they both hit the ground, let go his grip on Inuyasha giving the youkai lord the time he needed to push off of the ground and move out of the way, permitting Inuyasha's body to slam head first into conveniently placed boulder.

The hanyou slid off the boulder and lay on the ground, front side down. Sesshomaru stared at him as he could only hope that it was over. He rose to his feet and gathered his nerve, as he approached the seemingly dead hanyou.

However, it would be quite foolish to assume his younger brother's demise at this point. A dropped guard could mean death in a battle such as this. He walked silently over to Inuyasha's position, ever so cautious as to not wake him, should he be perhaps unconscious.

But as he approached what seemed to be living and breathing, he felt a sudden jolt of burning energy as realized that what he saw was merely a doppleganger. And just then the true Inuyasha revealed himself and with enough time to get a grip around Sesshomaru's neck with all ten of his iron claws.

All Sesshomaru could do was wonder in sheer awe at Inuyasha's ability level. 'But...HOW!' was all that ran through his mind at this point. 'Inuyasha NEVER knew of such abilities!' And that much was true, but there are many secrets and catacombs within the instinctual abilities that Inuyasha inherited from his father and mother.

All was lost for Sesshomaru at this point. Death was at hand, and there was NOTHING he could do about it...or should it be said, as for the doppleganger Inuyasha now held in his claws. The phony Sesshomaru that Inuyasha had a grasp on dispersed and the true Sesshomaru shadow darted out of the forest as fast as he ever had and landed a piercing flying sided kick right in the center of Inuyasha's back.

This force caused Inuyasha to slam back into the boulder and slide off once more, but before that could happen, a popping sound was heard upon impact from the kick. And this indefinitely caused Inuyasha to howl out in pain.

Sesshomaru knelt on the ground where Inuyasha had held his doppleganger captive, and began breathing rather hard. "Heh...I knew that was a good idea..." he sighed. The energy he had used for the doppleganger was more than he had to spare, but he suspected that it was essential for victory.

He looked over at Inuyasha's body and hoped dearly that it wouldn't move. Because by now, Sesshomaru had almost NO energy left. The doppleganger that he made was a special one, and it took a bit more ki than most ordinary ones. And the youkai lord had next to NO energy left, barely having enough for his flying kick and consciousness now.

He observed Inuyasha's body for just a bit more, and finally decided that he could lay down and rest for a moment. He gently laid down and tried to stretch his legs out but became nervous because the popping in them grew too loud to hear anything else. But it was soon gone and he lay comfortably.

Sesshomaru gazed into the afternoon sky and congratulated himself on completing the first part of his plan. But that inner boasting immediately rested as his ears detected perhaps the most terrifying noise they ever had. It was the sound of Inuyasha's body rising up, and gaining consciousness. 'NO!' he screamed out inside of his head as he lacked the energy to sit up and see what was happening.

And just then, Inuyasha's figure became evident as the hanyou peered over Sesshomaru's body and stared him directly in the face. Sesshomaru stared back. "Kill me now, or I'll return to slay you." The response he got from that was not at all one that he expected, as it was a sound, intelligent voice. "Heh heh. Don't kid yourself Sesshomaru. You couldn't kill me now and you won't be able to kill me in the future."

The voice of his younger brother had returned to normal, and Sesshomaru now noticed that his eyes were once again golden, and the purple marks on his cheeks had disappeared as well. "Inuyasha, but how?" was all he managed to get out. "Dunno, but I guess I'm back to normal now. And anyway, why the hell were we fighting!" he exclaimed, as if there was a reason other than why they usually fought.

"Well, I'll explain." Began Sesshomaru, as he tried to keep his pride as Inuyasha stared at him in his current position on the ground. "I had a proposition for you, brother." "Oh?" "I discovered that you needed the power of the Shikon Jewel to control your powers, and-" he stopped, as he was rather effectively cut off. "And how the hell'd you find that out! You been spying on me!" he interrupted, and demanded rather angrily. "No, calm yourself. I have not." "Then how'd y-" as now INUYASHA is cut off, "Never mind that. I have my sources. Anyway, after discovering this I came here to test your strength and I told myself that if you somehow managed to beat me at my full strength, that I would help you search for the sacred jewel."

Inuyasha became confused. "But...why?" "Because up until not too long ago I have seen you as worthless. But since our most recent battles, you have proven to have rivaled my prowess twice. And in any case, do you accept my generous offer, or am I merely wasting my time?" he responded, causing an already confused Inuyasha to become even more so. "Yeah...I guess."

Bet ya didn't expect that! Please, feed back!


	10. Who Needs Enemies

Here it is. I'm proud to announce the tenth chapter of my fic. Woohoo! 

Inuyasha spied Sesshomaru carefully, and made up his mind rather quickly that this was more than likely just a way for him to save his skin. "So, let me get this straight... you expect me to believe that's why you came down here to fight me? You can't be serious." He said in a semi sarcastic tone, as the evidence that pointed to Inuyasha's assumption was a rather large amount.

Sesshomaru stared at his brother from his spot on the ground, and was now ready to do some serious talking. "Inuyasha, ruthless as I am, I am no liar. Surely you know me better than that? And even more so, surely you of all people know that I have respect for great power?"

Inuyasha spit on the ground. "Bah! You mean you respect your OWN power, and if another arises you do your best to trample it out of your way!"

The youkai lord merely stared at Inuyasha and smirked. "You and I BOTH know that you do not believe that." He responded, as he proved he was quite good at mind games. Inuyasha contemplated for a while more. "Well, I DO believe that about you...However, I ALSO believe that you're one of your word. You wouldn't lower yourself as to scheme for you life, at the risk of destroying your reputation amongst other great youkai."

Sesshomaru feh'd and looked off in the distance. "You know your brother well." Inuyasha reached his arm out low enough for Sesshomaru to grab it. "C'mon, get up, cause I ain't carryin' ya." And with that, Sesshomaru's hand met Inuyasha's and he pulled himself up. "I can make it from here." He said, indicating that his pride was already hurt.

Inuyasha feh'd And began walking towards the tent. "Good."

Kagome poked her head out from around the tree she was hiding/praying behind, and managed to locate Sango's head, which was also popped out around another tree's corner. "Hey, you think it's safe to go out now?" she whispered in safest way she could.

Sango merely shrugged her shoulders and gave a looked that kind of said 'I dunno.' Kagome thought for a moment, and after deciding that there really wasn't much else to do, stepped out in a sheer act of curiosity. She whispered. "Hey, Shippo, can you smell Inuyasha anywhere near here?"

Shippo, who was no where in plain sight, but received the question thanks to his youkai enhanced hearing, responded with a rather low whisper as well. "No, he can't be near here."

Kagome sighed, and whispered a prayer on Inuyasha's behalf before speaking. "Well everyone, you can all come out now."

They all gathered in a circle, and began brainstorming about the recent events; Miroku was the first to say anything. "Does anyone have an idea of what that howling, or rather, roaring sound was not too long ago?"  
Sango responded, this being her field of knowledge. "I've got a pretty good idea." She began, as she caught everyone's attention. "That was definitely the battle cry of a youkai; more specifically, Inuyasha." Kagome's eyes widened. "THAT was INUYASHA!" She asked in complete surprise, as Shippo felt the urge to but in.

"Well of course, I could of told you that." He commented, giving everyone ample reason to stare at him in surprise. "It's a youkai thing." He said reassuringly. And it was shortly after this moment that a horrible thought came to Kagome's mind. She gasped. "What if Inuyasha found a village, and..." She found herself lost in her own speech as she raced towards Kirara.

"Kirara, take me to Inuyasha, quickly!" and with that, she hopped on the two tailed neko in complete disregard to Miroku and Sango's objections for safety reasons that were more than likely intelligent ideas.

Inuyasha slowed his pace as to allow a badly wounded Sesshomaru to catch up. "Oi..." he mumbled "Can't you go any faster!" Which damaged a quite already badly damaged pride, belonging to Sesshomaru. "Come ON!" he continued to groan.

They walked for a few feet more, when the scent of blood on his nose (of which he received after being smacked into that rather hard boulder) nearly fully dissipated and allowed him to smell as well as he did before. And at this time, Kagome's quite potent scent became even more so potent to him, and he lost all thought and darted off directly towards Kagome.

He flew through the trees and underbrush, as though they were merely dust in his path. Every tree that appeared in front of him was suddenly not so in front of him anymore, as he would zip to either the right or the left, and zip back around in the opposite direction.

His feet scarcely broke silence, as by now possessing the power he had allowed him to move and sound faster and more sound defiantly than even the most powerful of youkai ninja. His instincts seized his thought pattern even more so, as his urge and need to protect the one his mind restled with to be called 'Kagome' grew ever so quickly to be more of a must within him.

As he approached the scent of this human girl, his eyes widened in shock at just how torturous it was that he was not holding her at present. The beauty of this one's scent baffled him to no end, and the fact that he was still somewhat thinking with emotion and remembrance of this person's actions in his life gave him the sudden and pactual truth, that he would not sleep again until this person was safe in his arms.

Kagome flew through the forest on Kirara's back in hope and prayer that Inuyasha hadn't hurt someone, or someones, or even worse, what if he was hurt? If he was dead, could she go on? This person in her life who was by far the most...the most what? Kind, good looking, cool, strong...no. It was more than that. There was something about Inuyasha that Kagome knew deep in the back of her soul. He was the most important. Not particularly why or for what, he was just, the most important.  
She could feel the weight and tension of her heart beginning to beat faster and faster, as her genuine concern for this one's safety rose to a climax, well it would be a climax, for most. Her concern for his safety was able to rise so high, that it was FAR beyond that of which most cared for a person. She didn't know why, but that was the way it was.

Kagome knew not of Inuyasha's whereabouts, as she wished to God she had the ability to smell him and find him wherever he may be... but alas, she was human. All she could do was rely on the abilities of a certain neko of which she was currently mounted upon. She didn't realize it, but she had taken this path through the forest so many times that she almost completely knew the way herself. However, that was not important at present, because Kirara had begun to pick up the pace and of course Kagome had no idea as to why, and little to her knowledge it is instinctive for two tailed neko to pick up the pace upon the nearness of their destination.

Kagome's scent became even more potent to Inuyasha, and he ran even faster, (but not too fast as he might startle the one he was trying to keep out of harm's way) no longer being able to stand this separation from her. He cried out. "KAGOME!" This call was loud enough to make just about every animal in the forest to arise from their homes and dart for greater cover.

Kirara stopped where she was, and she stood there almost panicking while her ears twitched about to see if she could detect the sound again. Kagome's eyes widened as her heart beat even faster. She did not know where he was, just his general direction, despite the ringing in her ears, and she instinctively responded out "INUYASHA!" she could feel that she was beginning to cry, not so much in fear, but in happiness that she regained the ability to respond to Him at the call of her name.

The sound of Her voice beckoning his name was nearly too much to handle. He froze in midair, and attempted to savor the sound. This sound, one that was so sacred to him, the sound of Kagome calling out his name, nearly drove him to the brink of insanity. His anger bolted from the abyss into his body and the sweat of which he was covered in sizzled due to the temperature he now was, and all hell would break loose until this question was answered. "WHERE!" he shouted out. 'where where where where where where' 'WHERE IS SHE!' he screamed inside of his mind.

His nose told him where, and without a nanosecond of thought he darted out towards this sound and scent. He raced towards her, more quickly than ever, his mind being even more so oneset. There was a small clearing of trees up ahead, and his nose let him know that she was there. THERE. That's where She is. That is where She is. He nearly teleported up to it and She finally came into his view.

She was standing on one side of the clearing, and He on the other. Their eyes met, and they both ran at eachother at top speed. Well, Kagome would of ran at top speed, had Inuyasha not instantly been in front of her. He look slightly downward at her as to meet Her eyes. They could both tell that they were full of concern for the other, and Kagome smiled.  
Inuyasha stared at her for a moment more, and he knew that all would not be right until his question would be answered. "Kagome," he said in between deep breaths. "are you alright?" She stared right back at Him, and as her eyes met His, she quite happily responded. "Yes, I am now." Inuyasha smiled and hugged her. "Good."

They both stood and embraced each other, and for some reason this time around, it wasn't as awkward as it usually was. Sure, there wasn't really too much that was different this time, but still, something told the both of them that it was all right. Inuyasha's head was to the right of Kagome's and vice versa. Kagome felt the need to speak in the position they were in, since she had no desire to leave his arms at the moment.

She whispered into his ear, and was extra careful not to speak to loudly in his quite excellent sound receptors. "Inuyasha," she began. "Yes, Kagome?" "Never do that again." The youkai sighed. "I'll try my best." It wasn't the answer she was looking for, but for some reason since He was the one who said it, it gave her a knew level of comfort, and warmed her heart. "Thank you."

Inuyasha pulled away from her embrace slightly, as to give him visual access to her beautiful and comforting face. "Kagome, I think there's something we need to tell each other." He said softly, catching her attention. 'Is this it? Is this FINALLY IT?' she had waited so long for these words to roll off of his tongue, she had played this scene in her mind more than a thousand times, and all of her waiting and dreaming was finally about to happen. "What, Inuyasha?" and it was just then, that fate would have it's way, and something, it didn't matter what; SOMETHING would come along and disturb this wonderful moment.

And that someone would just happen to be Sesshomaru. "Well brother, I'm not disturbing you, am I?" Inuyasha's ears twitched and turned in Sesshomaru's direction. "Ah, no, not at all." He said in a rather embarrassed tone, as he pulled away from Kagome and turned to his elder sibling. Kagome stood there in shock, and now had a new hatred for Sesshomaru. 'Why you little...son of a...' she thought. 'Do you have ANY IDEA how hard it I for me to catch Inuyasha in that kind of mood?' she screamed out mentally to herself as if she was speaking to Sesshomaru in a mental world.

But all else aside, she realized that Sesshomaru had never come along for mere family reunions. He had never shown his face to them and soon after not fought. Inuyasha forgot the recent happenings for a moment and let his instincts take over him. "You stay away from Kagome." He said firmly, much to the surprise of Sesshomaru. His youkai features had just begun to show themselves when it hit Inuyasha that Sesshomaru was now on their side. "Oh, right. Sorry." He said as his features slowly began to disappear.

Kagome stared at the back of Inuyasha's head in total complete surprise. "What do you mean, 'Oh, right sorry!' Get him!" Inuyasha closed his eyes and smiled, as he turned around to face Kagome. "Ah, yeah, about that. Kagome, say hello to the newest member of the group!"

Dead Silence

More Dead Silence  
"...what..."

"Wa wa wa wait a minute Kagome, lemme explain!" he began. "Please do." She responded as she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

So, as you guessed, Inuyasha explained to Kagome the gist of what happened, and I'd really rather not bore you with a repeat of the last two chapters. : P

"Uh, huh..." Kagome responded as Inuyasha completed his little summary of the previous events. "So, you with me?" he asked hopefully. Kagome just looked at Inuyasha full of melancholy and smiled. "Well, I guess it's OK, if you think so. I'll trust your judgment." She said as she calmly walked over to his side.

Inuyasha felt relieved, and a bit confused on Kagome's word choice. 'She trusts me...no one's ever...' he pondered. But nonetheless kept his card face and hid his confusion. The three of them silently and slowly walked back to the tent, Kagome keeping her distance from Sesshomaru, but staying as close to Inuyasha as possible, ever so often requesting of him that he pick up the pace.

Inuyasha chuckled. "I thought you trusted my judgment?" Kagome was caught by surprise with this, and quickly said something to reassure him. "I do, why would you say that?" Inuyasha looked back at Sesshomaru and responded with a sigh. "Never mind..."

No one had so much as a clue as to what the other was thinking about, so they all decided to go on and think about something else. Kagome thought about how she was going to get Inuyasha to finally take her out on that date, Inuyasha thought about what he was going to do with her on it, and Sesshomaru, well, he's just Sesshomaru. I'm the writer, and I don't even know what he thinks about.

They eventually made it to the camp and Inuyasha called out to everyone to assemble out by the campfire. Sango was first to emerge from the tent, and did so cautiously because Shippo had informed all who were there that he detected Sesshomaru's scent, and that it was quite strong. Miroku came out next, also cautiously due to the same warning. However, Shippo did not emerge. He was quite satisfied being safely tucked away under a nice few layers of blankets, of which he figured would give him SOME protection from Sesshomaru. And of course they wouldn't, but hey, Shippo's an idiot!

Sesshomaru stood tall to Inuyasha's right side, and Kagome stood meekly next to Inuyasha, as she continued her thoughts of what they were going to do on their date. Inuyasha however, was now trying his best to keep his mind focused on the current situation. Thinking about Kagome would only distract him from giving the explanation he already knew would be sloppy.

Miroku's eyes focused in the sunlight and within a few seconds he saw Sesshomaru, and shortly after his visual receptors had focused, they widened in fear. "Inuyasha to your right!" he exclaimed as he reached over to his prayer beads, ready as ever to quickly remove them and show a certain youkai lord the true meaning of bagless vacuum.

Sango, who was also in surprise and had readied her weapon as well, eyeballed the current situation and quickly made sense of it all. She turned her head towards Miroku. "Calm down, there's something we're missing here." She said in a calm, collective manner. Miroku blinked, and quickly realized that Sesshomaru was standing WITH Inuyasha, not sneaking around to his side.

"Um, I am confused." Said the monk, who obviously sought an answer within his statement. Sesshomaru took this opportunity to calm everyone and explain. "Well, here is the truth..."

And there was much explainnig. I know this is lazy, but I don't really care to write something that doesn't need to be written.

Miroku and Sango looked at Inuyasha and Kagome, full of surprise after the little explanation. The look they gave each was clearly saying, 'Is this true?' and without words being used, both Inuyasha and Kagome nodded at the same time. "Wow." Miroku said. "Well, I guess that's that, no use not believing it. So, when do we start looking for the jewel fragments?"

"YOU won't be. I have found that Inuyasha becomes quite dangerous to us all when this human friend of his becomes threatened." Sesshomaru began, as he pointed to Kagome. And in respondence to this, Inuyasha blushed and retaliated. "Now wait just a-" Kagome shushed him. "Just let him finish, please?" she whispered into his ear. The hanyou looked over his left shoulder and met Kagome's eyes, the one pair of eyes that were unable to take no for an answer. "Oi...alright."

"Anyway, as I was saying," Sesshomaru continued "If anything even comes close to happening to this girl, Inuyasha will become more than enough for the three of us to defeat." He said upon completion. "Is that so?" Kagome said misheiviously as she gave Inuyasha a passionate look. "Umm, I a...I just don't want you getting hurt for things that I drag you into." He said as he did his best to hold his posture and closed his eyes while folding his arms.

He braced himself for a sit, and was seriously hoping to not be, when out of Her mouth came one of his favorite things to hear. "Thank you." His ears twitched, and his eyes widened as he began to lose the posture he so tried to keep. "Ah, sure. No problem." He said with a blush, of course no one noticed it, due to him staring at the ground. And even if they did notice, they would of mistaken it for a shadow because of how dark the redness was.

"Well, Sesshomaru, what do you propose we do to prevent such outbreaks?" asked a quite curious Miroku. "Well, I would suggest that since I know Inuyasha wouldn't be willing to have her just leave the group for a while, that he and she take a short vacation back to her home village." Miroku nodded. "That sounds like an excellent idea. I think we could ALL use a break."

"Yes, a vacation would be nice." Added Sango. And then they all turned to Inuyasha and Kagome. "So, what do you two think about that?" asked Sango. Kagome replied ever so quickly, and was quite happy to finally have a chance to go out on that date with Inuyasha. "I think that'd be a great idea!" she said in a rather up-beat tone. "Come on, Inuyasha, what do you say?"

Everyone one looked at Inuyasha, who was NOT happy at all. Sure, he cared for Kagome's safety, but he was just a TAD bit uncomfortable with everyone's knowledge on the current situation. And were it now for Kagome's so eagerly sounding reply, he'd of said no. But then he turned to look at her, and who could say no to those eyes? "Oi...alright, that sounds fine."

And there it is. A little longer as my way of saying sorry for taking so frickin' long! Lol. Well actually, I just had so much fun writing this chapter I had to MAKE myself stop writing. But then I guess that's good news for all of us, right? Anyway, death threats, other various mean things you might want to say to me, and, y'know, the usual, are all very welcome. Oh, and Foggy Brain, I got your review not too long ago, and I didn't quite understand what you wanted to know how long what was. Did you mean the fic? Sorry if I sound incompetent, but I genuinely didn't understand. Please elaborate! Thx. Next chappy should be up within a week.


	11. Here Kitty Kitty

Well. To everyone who is reading this, I know it's far longer than anticipated. There are details as to why I stopped writing for two months that needn't be discussed here, but what I'll say, is on with the story. I apologize for any inconvenience.

Every one sat around the campfire speaking about various things regarding the current situation; which isn't surpsrising, seeing how most people DO talk about current situations.

They all spoke of many scenarios regarding the events, all of which were more or less so important than others.

It wasn't long before the most obvious questions arose in the minds of the group members, each being of interest as to why they took so long to be brought up. No one felt the need to speak them openly, but instead found more clever ways to obtain their desired information.

Miroku was the first to speak, (as usual) and did so with the most respective tone he could produce towards Sesshomaru. "Lord Sesshomaru, I am aware that you are quite able to complete this task on your own, but would it be too much to ask if I were to accompany you on this venture?"

Sesshomaru looked at the monk, and it became obvious that the youkai lord had changed his general morals around. "Not at all, you may come if you so desire." He responded, which caused Inuyasha's ears to twitch involuntarily.

The hanyou fixated his eyes on Sesshomaru, and studied him carefully with a squinted look. He thought silently to himself as a few things regarding Sesshomaru began to catch his attention. He said nothing, but hardly discarded the thoughts.

Sango, in light of this new information, decided that if the monk was going, why not her too. "Umm, Lord Sesshomaru, would I be imposing if I asked to come as well?" she asked in a rather meek tone; very un-Sango.

The youkai lord without even batting an eye responded with a "Of course not." not so much with the slightest usual disgust for humans he has within his tone. Sango looked at the downward quite happily, as she predicted Sesshomaru would see it odd for a human girl to smile at him.

And regarding this, Inuyasha's ears percked up yet again, and this time his nose detected something a bit pecue as well. Kagome however made little note of it; she was far too busy being entertained by the twitching of Inuyasha's ears. It lulled her in a way, and though it was a simple body function for Inuyasha, it entertained and bewildered her to no end.

Sesshomaru's sudden acceptance of humans began to really concern Inuyasha, even though his elder brother had quite diligently explained that he was no liar. But 800 years of hatred for a something could not so easily be shaken in a mere short period of time such as this.

Inuyasha decided that naught could be pinpointed as of yet, and that he would continue to survey the rest of his elder brother's actions. He watched with readiness and intent throughout the remainder of the night, as every other action that Sesshomaru made was just something Inuyasha would assume to be normal; as he had not seen his elder brother's every day actions for quite some years now.

He ate and drank, just like everyone else. He sat cross-legged, just like everyone else. In fact, everything that Sesshomaru did for the entirety of the night and perhaps even after that and beyond was just like everyone else; of course to the extent that certain things are done normally by youkai as opposed to certain ordinary things done by humans.

The constant conversation that took place between the rest of the time period was quite amusing, in fact so much that Inuyasha himself was even a little lost in all of the talk. Everything seemed to be at ease, and there was no immediate sign of danger. He and all the others were safe, so he finally decided to let his guard fall and enjoy the company of his comrades.

During all this, Kagome had noticed something that Inuyasha had kept at his waist for some time now. It would probably not be of much concern were it anyone else, but it had come to her attention that Inuyasha valued a rather small amount of things, and this being something new grabbed her thoughts and refused to let them break free.

It was a white, jug looking thing, and Kagome used her best of knowledge to estimate that it's contents to be no more or less then a gallon. There was some red lettering on its side, which was more than likely the ancient wolf youkai language that Inuyasha spoke to Sesshomaru in every so often, and from time to time as it would pass by, Inuyasha would reach down to it after removing the cork, and take a nice big gulp of whatever its content would be.

Kagome feared the slight yet horrible rejection she would receive amongst her friends were she to ask what it was only to discover that it was something more commonly so used than she had come to know, but she eventually decided that it was worth the trouble, because it was really beginning to grasp her attention.

"Umm, Inuyasha?" she asked out to Him after finally gathering up the nerve to do so. "What is that stuff? Is it any good?" The hanyou stared over at her as if to say ' You gotta be kidding'. But he didn't fail to remember that Kagome was from a completely different era, and of course she wouldn't know what this was.

"It's a special kind of sake that an old friend of my pop's used to make. It's really good stuff, and now that I think about it, I'm surprised I haven't shown you this yet." Kagome looked at Inuyasha, and though she tried incredibly hard not to show that she was very pleased to FINALLY know what that was, she failed to hide her 'THANK YOU! I NEEDED TO KNOW THAT' expression, and gave Inuyasha the impression that she wanted to try some.

"Uh, you wanna give it a shot? It's really good stuff, as I said." He offered, as best he could in the most Inuyasha way. He reached to the left most side of his sash, and shortly after doing so handed the bottle over to Kagome, who was meekly planning to accept whatever it was that Inuyasha wanted her to do. "Uuh, sure, a little shot can't hurt I guess." She said as she received the bottle from her firm handed friend.

She grasped the bottle in her left hand, and placed her right over the lid of the container, in a fashion that suggested twisting the top off. Attempt 1: that didn't work. The bloody thing was turned on so tightly that it would take a miracle for her to just twist it off.

So she tried various other things, such as prying it, pulling it off straight up, and eventually using her teeth to try and get the cork from hell out of the jar. All of which were more of failures than the next. Inuyasha would have offered his help during this somewhat dilemma, but he as well as all who were watching, were completely lulled by the futile attempts the young miko made to remove the cork from the bottle that wouldn't quit.

He stared in awe at the various other things she tried to use to her advantage to open the blasted thing, and it wasn't long before he regained himself and offered his hand to open the bottle.

"Here Kagome I'll get it." He offered with a chuckle as he stretched out his hand to receive the bottle. Kagome, who for some reason hadn't realized his offer, continued her attempt to open the bottle, and now had it between her inner thighs for a hold, and was using two hands for the cork removal.

Inuyasha sat there in a dull, awkward atmosphere, and left his outstretched hand at Kagome's shoulder. Of course with hopes that she would squirm enough and feel this very hand behind her in the fashion that it was, and understand the gesture.

She made a few more attempts to complete her objective, and soon enough Inuyasha's prediction was proven to be true. Kagome felt his hand, and quietly 'eeped' in realization that she was more than likely being rude without knowing it.

In light of this, she spun around with a blushed expression, and stared at Inuyasha. "I'm sorry, what did you need?" she asked as if completely lost.

The hanyou merely stared back, with an equal if not greater amount of confusion, and soon enough the awkward gazes met their ends as Kagome registered what had just happened. "Oh, this?" she asked presumably, as she gestured to hand the bottle to her silver haired friend.

"Yeah that, lemme get it for ya." He responded with quite the cheerful tone.

Kagome then of course handed him the bottle, and with future events would forget that Inuyasha was not a mere human. He accepted the bottle from her grasp, and set it down on his right thigh, supporting it with his left hand.

He looked at Her smugly, and proceeded his task by twisting the cork off with his right hand. He chuckled. "It's all in the wrist, give it a shot." He said as he placed the cork back on. (Not quite as tightly as he had before)  
The hanyou then returned the bottle to Kagome, who did her best to follow His advice and 'flicked' her wrist as she popped open the cork. "Ha! I WIN you stupid bottle!" she exclaimed rather noisily, as she taunted the container in a peculiar way.

The young miko completed her little victory dance, and looked at her friend and expressed her gratitude. "Thanks! That was getting annoying." She said with a smile.

Sesshomaru took this opportunity to comment on the situation. "Really? I couldn't tell." He said in a fun-ish sarcastic type tone. Inuyasha's ears twitched once more in respondence to this, and Sango stared at Sesshomaru in a very shocked sort of way.

Inuyasha eyeballed his elder brother for a moment more, and it was during this that his nose informed him of something odd. It was Sesshomaru's scent all right, but it was slightly altered. And what it was altered with was not at all a common one to have been done with; the scent of wood.

The hanyou stared at the youkai for a bit longer during this awkward silence, and detected that the wooden scent was located directly in Sesshomaru's abdomen. 'I KNEW I smelt something odd about him. I just couldn't pinpoint what!' he exclaimed in his mind.

Conversation had been picked back up by this time (and Kagome had forgotten about the sake somehow), and everyone just decided to let go the really very odd moment a few minutes ago.

And during this, Shippo had tripped over Kirara and fell near the fire, which managed to catch his tail aflame. Everyone burst out into laughter, completely ignoring the pain of poor Shippo. And, as it happens, and irony strikes at the perfect moments, Sango had laughed herself right into tears while observing the rather hilarious actions of a Kitsune caught fire.

This loss of her bodily control, except for her ability to grasp her ribs with laughter, had caused her to spill a particularly hot cup of tea right onto her bosom. She squeaked in pain, and shot up into the air from where she had sat. "Ah ah ah ah ah! That's really hot!" she screamed as steam rose from the top of her breasts.

The hot liquid then proceeded to follow gravity's laws, and began running down from her chest to her upper solar plexus, where it began to slow to a stop. She cried out in pain as she ran around looking for some cold water, and eventually slapped Miroku right on the side of his face. "Come on! Help me get some water dammit!" she scolded, not realizing that steam was rising from her now burning hot breasts, as she was bent forward to Miroku's face, while he sat on the ground. (Quite a view for the priest, no?)

And it just so happens that the youkai slayer had worn her favorite summer kimono to this occasion, which of course followed the tradition of all kimono in Japan, and required a sash of some sort to be kept togather.

This sash had, as it just so happens in concordance with Miroku's no doubt wildest fantasy, begun to come un-done with all her laughing and running about. And in the very position the two were in, her kimono opened just enough to reveal the upper section of Sango's breasts. Wet, steam rising and all.

Inuyasha and Kagome sighed, for they new EXACTLY what was gonna happen next. And they stared in a complete, totally shocked awe, with their jaws wide open and eyebrows furiously raised, with the most confuzzled expression you can think of, as the monk calmly stood to his feet, and replied "Of course Sango, my apologies." Without the SLIGHTEST interest to the most obvious object(s) of his desire.

Inuyasha and Kagome then turned their attention towards eachother, with the same, confused look. There was no place for words, as this was entirely too odd. Inuyasha redirected his attention to the monk and the slayer, and rubbed his eyes, soon afterwards squinting them and studying hard the situation.

'Uh uh. Nope. That didn't just happen. I refuse to believe it.' Commented the hanyou to himself in his mind. He stood to his feet and called out to the priest. "Hey Miroku, you feelin ok?"

Miroku blinked in surprise to this question and returned the glance as he responded. "Uh, yes of course. Why do you ask?"

"I'm not sure. You seem a little...I dunno. A little different I guess." Responded Inuyasha.

The monk suddenly gained a more seirious sounding tone to his voice. "Explain what you mean by, 'different,' Inuyasha."

There was a pause in conversing, as Inuyasha tried to think of something to say to this. He put a lot of consideration into the answer, but just couldn't quite think of how to describe it. And it was during this thought, when he noticed Miroku's prayer beads were absent from his right hand.

He gasped, and acted upon instinct. This reaction consisted of him darting over to Kagome and covering her. "Miroku what the hell are you thinking! Put those beads back on your hand before something happens!"

Everyone became alert, and all stared at Inuyasha with the obvious expression. "No look I'm serious! The prayer beads aren't on his right hand!" Exclaimed the hanyou, without the slightest sound of a joke within his tone.

Miroku stared at his right palm, and became confused, "Inuyasha what do you speak of?" he asked, as he indicated the prayer beads securly tied around his left forearm and inner palm. "The beads ARE on. Have you forgotten that the curse was on my LEFT hand?"

Inuyasha arose from his embrace on Kagome, who was still quite shocked at what her mind registered to be a hug of some sort, and stared at Miroku. "What did you say?" he asked in a very questionate tone.  
"See? No hole here." Said the monk as he pointed to his right open palm.

Inuyasha regained his composure, and calmed everyone down. "Oh, wups. I wasn't thinking straight. Sorry everyone." He said in the tone recently indicated, as he walked over to Sango and offered to help her to the river nearby.

Kagome was now shocked, as well as Sango. Since when has Inuyasha been this correcting of himself? They knew something was up. But nonetheless, Inuyasha continued with what he had inteneded to do.

"C'mon Sango I know the fastest route, follow me." He said to the kunoichi- like warrior.

Sango was at a loss for ideas on what was happenning, but decided that cooling her chest off would be more important at the moment, In fact very much so. Because unfortunitally for Sango, this heat left quite a burn.

Sango stood up from where she had bent over, as Inuyasha stood tall next to her. "Ok then." He said, giving the indication of the beginning of some type of journey.

They began walking, when Inuyasha spun around to his right, and went 180 degrees behinbd Sango, with his left claws stretched out. He then slowed the speed of his arm, making sure that the after wave of his force wouldn't continue on and hit Sango, and allowed the claws to impale the face of Miroku. All five of them went in deeply, the index and middle finger logged deep within the monk's brain, the ring and pinky finger in his cheek bone, and the thumb claw in his temple.

This of course killed him instantly. From this position, Inuyasha drew Tetsusaiga and commanded the blade to transform with the control of his youki, after which he made and upward right slash; which seamlessly went through the neck of Sesshomaru.

Sango and Shippo hardly believed what they saw, as blood spouted in hearbeat intervals from Miroku's face, and his right eye fell out from impact; the left one was dented in.

Sesshomaru appeared as though nothing happened, he sat cross legged still, with a calm, controlled look on his face. "Wait...Sesshomaru's not dead? Did you miss! Or is this just some kind of joke..." Sango asked in hopes that it was.

This question however was soon answered as Sesshomaru's head smoothly, and precisely slid off of his neck. A bit of blood shot out from between his shoulders, and the body vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Inuyasha what the hell! Are you insane?" exclaimed Sango in a desperate act of confusion. "Die you traterous bastard!" She continued in her overwhelming stress, as she reached for her wakizashi, in an attempt to avenge Miroku.

It was at this time when Kagome arose and shouted: "Sango NO! Wait a minute!" But the slayer didn't respond. She drew the blade from her back with her right hand, and went for Inuyasha's throat using a reverse slash technique.

However, Inuyasha is not one so simply defeated. He was easily able to drop his head a bit, and intercept the small katana with his fangs. "Bah. You fool." He commented, as the blade shattered under his jaw's immenense pressure. "I may be nuts, but that's only when I've been pushed over the edge. And besides, you didn't think that'd kill me did you?"

Sango dropped to the ground on her knees. "Inuyasha why did you do it? What did he do to you!" she demanded. However Inuyasha just calmly reached down to lift her up. "Get a hold of yourself Sango! I figured you'd be wiser than this by now! I'll explain when you get up and quit acting like a child."

Then everything that had just happened hit Sango. It was a cold slap of reality, and it all seemed to click when she thought about it. But still, a few things would need an explanation. So, she rose to her feet, and dried her tears.

"Well then start explaining." She said firmly. "But wait a minute...why aren't YOU stressed about this, Kagome? Is there something I don't know about?" she asked in an angry tone, still obviously quite traumatized by all this.

"I'm not quite sure, Sango. But I DO trust Inuyasha's judgement and skill. He wouldn't do something like this unprovoked, or without reason."

And it was just then, when Miroku's body dissappeared in a puff of smoke as well. In both the places of his and Sesshomaru's bodies, there laid a small, wooden Golem. "Oh, of COURSE! How could I be so naieve..." said a saddened Sango.

"Are you getting this now, Sango?" asked Inuyasha, who was hoping she was. "That wasn't really Miroku OR Sesshomaru. They were golems, created by Naraku. Didn't you find that Miroku suddenly being left handed was odd? I knew there was something striking about that. Or how bout Sesshomaru looking as though we didn't even fight! Not a scatch on 'em. And of course not to mention their personality changes. Miroku didn't grope you just now, and Sesshomaru being the way he was...it was just too obvious."

"..." Sango left her comments to herself. "And to confirm my suspisions, I could smell the difference in Sesshomaru's blood. It was hard to tell with Miroku though, because human blood isn't as specific as a youkai's. Well, most of the time anyway."

Kagome smiled. "See? I find that Inuyasha's usually right about these kind of things." She said warmly, making Inuyasha flinch.

"Inuyasha..." began sango. "Please forgive me. After all we've been through, I still doubted you. How could I do that!" Inuyasha just 'keh'd' and turned away from everyone. "Don't worry about it. Things happen."  
"So, what now?" asked Kagome.

"Well, now we find out where Naraku's keeping Miroku and Sesshomaru. Then we free 'em." Responded the hanyou.

Kagome smiled. "Sounds like a plan."

"We can go right now, or get some sleep first. Either way it doesn't metter to me, I don't need sleep." Said Inuyasha.

Kagome looked over at him with a sound of confusion in her voice. "Really? I didn't know that. Since when?"

"It's weird. Ever since my last few transformations, I find that I'm not at all tired. You'd think I would be." He said, making a rather interesting point. "I don't know what's all going on here, but I intend to find out what is."

Sango turned her gaze to Inuyasha. "I agree with you. But can we do this tomorrow? I'm afraid I lack the energy for even the slightest bit of combat."

"Yeah, that's fine. 'sides, aren't you a bit tired too, Kagome?" He asked.

"Actually I'm REALLY tired. I'm sorry Inuyasha." She responded with an apologetic tone.

"Don't sweat it. Shippo looks pretty tired too. You all get some rest, you too, Kirara. I'll look out tonight." He added sounding quite leaderly, and was acknowledged by the cat youkai with a happy sounding purr.

And with that, Sango headed the tent, as well as Shippo and Kirara. This had been quite a day, and they were finally gonna get some rest. But just before Kagome could even move, Inuyasha called out to her.

"And thank you, Kagome." He said with a tone that suggested he had more to say.

"For what?" she asked, quite confusedly

"That."

"Huh?"

"I don't really know how to say it. Just...thanks." He said with a warm smile as he gazed at her.

She really didn't know what to do but smile back, not that that was a bad thing, she very much so wanted to. In fact, she did it unvoluntarily.  
"Thank YOU, Inuyasha." She said before entering the tent. 'Oh wow, that just made my day!' she exclaimed to herself as she shouted Hallelujah mentally as well.

Inuyasha however was lost in total confusion, and stood thinking for a moment.

'Well, I guess t doesn't really matter why she's thanking me, as long as she's THANKING me.' He thought to himself with a smile.

Well, that's it for now. I wanted to make this chapter longer, but as things go, it just needed to be ended here (as you can see XD) Hope ya liked it! Review please if ya got a minute


	12. You Know You Need To Lighten Up When

"Ugh... What is wrong with me? Why am I so angry now?" Inuyasha whispered under his breath, as he quite honestly had no idea what the matter was.

'I haven't been in an argument with anyone lately, well, not a REAL argument...No one's really pissed me off at all...WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME!' He shouted in his mind, quite vexed.

He stood tall on a treetop near the tent, with his arms crossed and eyes closed. The cool night breeze caused his kimono and hair to flow east in the wind, and his senses were filled with those of the night.

Frogs leaping about, various insects shouting calls for a mate, the rustling of chicks beneath the warm feathers of their mothers...

It was a perfect time of solitude. No one was around to bother him, and the moon was a bright half circle, which beamed down upon the forest. Yet despite all this, he found it within himself to become angered.

'This might get ugly.' He thought to himself. 'If it gets out of too bad I'll just-'

He struggled to continue the thought, but his mind began to wander. There was a hole, somewhere in his soul and it cried out to be filled. But he didn't know what the shape of this hole was, so his youkaic blood began to give him ideas...

The images of frightened men and women filled his mind. It was as if all they were for was pleasure. The terrified looks they gave...they mean nothing. It's all just part of the fun.

And suddenly the horrifying stares they were giving him wasn't enough...there was something that needed to be done. The man knelt down, and laid his sword to the ground.

"Please, master. Please spare me." It said. Which meant nothing. Inuyasha brought his right hand to his face and laughed when he saw it stained with blood. He grinned to himself, as though all he knew was one thing. The knowledge of what he could do.

The knowledge of destruction.

He cracked his knuckles by quickly stretching out his fingers then returning them to a claw like fashion with an equal amount of speed. He then walked over to the man, and grasped his torso armor near the center of his stomach.

The man's eyes widened with fear as Inuyasha lifted him up off of the ground with his left hand, eyes red a glow, with the most devious grin the man had ever seen.

The youkai retracted his right arm, not letting loose his hold on the man. He cracked his knuckles once more, and held his arm just near his right ear, with the same open claw like fashion.

The creature made a noise once more. "Please! Please master, spare me my life! I beg of you!"

This noise was a joyful one. He had no idea what it meant, or that it even was a noise at all. Nothing mattered. Thinking did not exist. The sheer thought that something could happen was completely oblivious in Inuyasha's mind. But even at that moment, he was not Inuyasha. He was not anything. Nothing was anything.

Just kill. Just death. Remove that from this place! Make it go away!

Inuyasha thrust out his claws out at the man's face.

But then... the most peculiar thing happened. Something cried out to him. It wasn't no one, it was definitely someone. It was so...so familiar. He could see a figure off in the distance.

'Remove that from existence!' Screamed a voice

'No. That...that can't happen' Responded the figure.

'That's a lie...there is no such thing as death' said the voice 'All there is, is killing! Nothing else IS.'

'Something isn't as it should be here...' Responded the figure once more, sounding like a familiar hanyou.

"Inuyasha? Inuyasha! Are you ok?" cried Kagome, who had apparently exited the tent and had been calling Inuyasha for quite some time. "Hey! Answer me!" she called once more.

Inuyasha's ears twitched, and everything was as it was. There was no man. No 'voice.' No 'figure.'

He looked down at Kagome from the treetop. "Huh? You need somethin?" he asked sounding lost for words.

"Just wondering if you're ok...you were growling pretty loudly up there." She responded with a softer tone.

"I was?" he questioned, having no such memory. He looked around. It was morning. 'Crap...I've been asleep this whole time...' he said in his mind, as he began scolding himself.

"Why dontcha' come on down? Sango made breakfast for everyone." She suggested in a cheerful tone, while waiting for her hoped response from Inuyasha, who seemed a little out of it.

He smelled the food, and the offer would've been a difficult one to turn down. "Yeah sure I'll be right there. Gimme a sec." He responded.

"Kay, just hurry up so it doesn't get cold." Said Kagome in the same cheerful tone.

And with that, Inuyasha squatted down, with his arms still crossed, and leapt straight up from his spot on the tree. The force he put off quickly sent him vertically through the air. He kept his eyes closed, and tilted his head back to take in the morning scents.

And at the penicle of his height, his eyes quickly widened so he could survey the several miles around the camp. And it was at that moment, when something hit him. 'Hey, wait a minute! I was asleep! But ever since those last couple of transformations I don't NEED sleep!'

The thought perplexed him, as he honestly didn't believe he needed to slip into unconsciousness to regain his strength. True, he didn't really need to, as his body was powerful enough to regenerate its own energy at all times, even in the midst of combat. But he hadn't done anything truly extreme enough to make him feel tired the previous night, despite his fight with the Sesshomaru clone. That which he had recovered an ample amount of strength from after the happenings at the camp fire.

'If I wasn't tired...or asleep...then what could that 'dream' possible have been?' he wondered. But it was of no consequence at the time, for he feared the rage of a certain miko who was more than likely eagerly awaiting him to keep his word and come eat.

So he banished the thought from his mind for the time being, and continued his descent towards the ground.

He looked downward at the treetops and what little he could see of the underbrush of the forest, and observed it as it rapidly became much larger then it had seemed. His drop rate more than tripled at this point, and everything seemed to move at light speed, when suddenly, all was put to a halt, as his feet met the ground, and he retracted his legs to absorb the impact.

He waited for the dust to settle, then stood to his feet and walked over to the other side of the tent to meet Sango, Kagome and Shippo for breakfast.

The hanyou calmly walked over to the mat which his comrades were sitting upon, and took his seat next to Kagome, while Shippo sat across the mat from Inuyasha, and Sango next to the Kitsune. Inuyasha had noticed something peculiar about Sango and Kagome, but he couldn't put his finger on what. It was something he had never seen either of them do, or so he couldn't remember, but it was most odd indeed.

He observed the girls more closely than ever, as they sat and devoured their little entrees. Then it hit him. 'That's it!' he shouted in his mind. He noticed that Sango hadn't tied her kimono anywhere NEARLY as secure as she usually had, and Kagome was sitting crossed legged with her skirt on.

It became obvious that they had 'let their guard down' now that Miroku wasn't around for the time being, as small conversation and eating continued. He did his best to try and not notice it, but as things go, it was impossible to remove from his mind. And it soon became the center of his focus to not observe either Kagome or Sango for the time.

"Wow, this is really good, Sango." Kagome commented to the ninja-ish chef with a smile. "Thank you, Kagome. Did you notice the extra seasonings I put on the sushi?" replied Sango, with an equally cheerful look. 'Geeze.' Thought Inuyasha to himself. "I'd figure they'd be worried about Miroku, but I guess this must be nice for them to not have to worry about that creep every second of their lives.'

Various other small talk continued on through the remainder of the meal, and Inuyasha did his best to keep his eyes on his food, and not elsewhere. He ended up doing a pretty nice job of it, actually. But unfortunately, this had taken quite a bit of focus. Not that he was attracted to Sango or anything of that nature, he just didn't want to see any female's body other than his mate's, whoever that may be.

And it was most unfortunate at the time, because Sango had recently felt the need to loosen the top of her kimono, showing a 'tad' more than Inuyasha would have liked to see every time Sango reached over the mat to grab the rice.

The meal lingered on a little more than he had hoped for (considering the circumstances) but eventually came to a clothes. Err...close. It was just then when Inuyasha noticed someone in the bushes behind Kagome.

'Son of a...I totally let my guard down while trying to avoid what was in front of me...ah hell.' He sprung up from his spot on the ground, and quickly hopped backward while cracking his knuckles. "Kagome, get out of the way, now!" he shouted, as Kagome upon instinct obeyed this command and sprung to her feet as well (of course, not nearly the same speed) and ran behind Inuyasha for cover.

"All right, whoever you are, come on out and show yourself!" he shouted, yet again. His nose told him it was a female cat youkai of some sort. And, as this nose wasn't one to fail, the youkai who was true to what Inuyasha had figured, stepped forward from out of the bushes.

"Well well, what have we here." Said the feline with a purr type noise in her tone. "A wolf, a fox, and two women. This should be interesting."

"Just who the heck are you!" demanded Inuyasha with an angry tone. "I am Claire, a cat youkai sent here by Naraku to kill you. But don't take me for one of his wenches, I came here to test the rumors of your strength, Inuyasha. Naraku told me everything I needed to know in order to find you." she responded, with a grin.

She was around 5 foot 2, with black silky hair with bangs that would cover her eyes if they were in front of them. These bangs were evenly distributed about her face, and it seemed that a long time in the wind had made them stay a bit to the right, which partially covered her right eye. And towards the back of her head, she had placed a leather tie, much like that of a pony tail's, and had 'flamed' the hair beyond the tie up, like a pinwheel.(See Tenchu's Ayame for this particular hair style) She had a red mark on both cheeks that which seemed to have been made by the slash of a small katana, in a similar fashion to Inuyasha's, whos were purple and jagged.

Her eyes were a brilliant bright blue, with long black slits for pupils and shorter fangs in her mouth then that of a wolf. She also had claws, also not quite as long as a wolf's, which were at the ends of her slightly tanned hands. Hands of which were the same color as the rest of her skin. (Or so one would assume) And also along with these neko like features, two thin, pointy black cat ears on the sides of her head, each sticking diagonally backward and slightly tilted to the sides. And last but not least, a long black tail that extended just at the bottom of her lower back, and was covered in fur, about 3 ½ feet long.

She wore a skin-tight black shirt, which was cut off at the arms, and appeared to be made out of some type of fur. It seemed to be a little snug on her, even for being skin-tight; more then likely due to her rather large bust size. Her leggings were white, in a V shape at the hips, making her belly button quite visible. They hugged her hips, and became gradually more baggy until just below the knees, where they came to a close and hugged the skin. Her shoes were oddly enough like chinos, (Chinese shoes) and she wore no other accessories.

"I'll be more then happy to show you what I'm capable of, cat. But first I wanna know why you're here." Inuyasha said with a confident tone.

Claire grinned a little wider. "Hehehe...that's for me to know...and for you to find out."

Inuyasha smirked.

"Shall we begin?" she asked as she slanted her look at the hanyou.

"All right, but I'm not gonna hold back."

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Claire said with a sudden pounce like attack. She bolted forward and slightly into the air from her straight-postured cross arm stance, and drew her arm back, readying it for a downward slash attack.

Inuyasha lashed out at her arm with his right hand, and seized it. He then used the force she had put into her attack against her, by taking it and spinning around; resulting with her face being smashed into the ground.

A loud and echoing "Yipe" was let out.

She quickly gathered herself from the ground, and hopped into the air for just enough room to spin around and land on all fours. She stared up at Inuyasha and hissed, while shuffling her weight to step sideways to the right, crossing her arms and legs over one another when necessary.

Inuyasha calmly started walking over to her, as if to shake her hand, or greet her. This confused the feline, and she pounced forward yet again in over anticipation from her current position.

She put her right hand palm facing her temple next to her left ear, and did the same with her left to her other ear, which caused her arms to form an X in front of her face. She then, while still in the air, quickly lashed out both hands from the sides and formed a horizontal line in front of her, which might have done some damage, had Inuyasha not leapt above her body and flipped backward, with his right foot being squarely implanted into the middle of her spine.

She yelped out in pain, and slammed into the ground.

Inuyasha landed swiftly and silently on the ground a few feet behind Claire, left foot first, and just as quietly, followed by the right.

The cat brought her upper body a few inches off the ground, and supported herself on her elbows. She coughed up a little blood into the grass, and breathed heavily.

"Well," she began through gasps of air "that's exactly what I was hoping for." She said, as cheerfully as she could.

Inuyasha stared at her. "Anything else I can do for ya? A broken rib, perhaps?" he said in cocky tone.

"Well, yes, there is one thing..." she began "Would I be asking too much if I plead to stay with you and your comrades?"

Sango gave Claire a perplexed look; as well as everyone else there, actually.

"Please, may I have the honor of traveling with you all? Inuyasha, you have lived up to your name, I wish to aid you in your quest." She said with a tone that suggested honoring Inuyasha.

"Oh is that so? And why should I trust you?" he asked questioningly.

"You don't have to, but I say to you, I know the location of Naraku, Kagura, and seven of the sacred jewel shards." She said with a smirk, still coughing up a little blood.

"Well, I guess that leaves me with a small amount of options, now doesn't it. All right, you can stay with us." He began. "But what do you want in return?"

"I'll repeat my previous response; that's for me to know, and for you to find out." She said with a grin as she did her best to rise to her feet.

She gazed at Inuyasha with a smile, and bowed courteously to him, on shaking knees. "Many thanks, friend. But May I ask of you something?"

"Shoot." He said smugly

"Why didn't you turn a hanyou like me away?" asked a confused feline.

Inuyasha gave Claire another perplexed look, and questioned her heritage. "Somethin' wrong with your nose? Can't you tell I'm half youkai too? ... Wait a minute...you're a hanyou!" he asked in quite the confused voice, smelling the air furiously.

"Oh, I get it." He said conclusioningly, as his nose detected the scents of several jewel shards about her body. "Naraku somehow disguised the scents and aura of the jewels, I guess. That's the only thing I can think of. And that's also probably why Kagome didn't tell me she sensed any jewels on you; because she didn't."

"By the way, that's Kagome, Sango, Shippo, and Kirara there." He said, indicating each person as he named them off.

"Nice to meet you, Claire." Said Kagome with a smile. Which was responded to by Claire with a nod.

Shippo gave a "Hello, miss." Sango bowed, and Kirara gave her traditional growl of affection.

"But wait a minute-" began the feline "You said you're a hanyou as well?"

"Yea, I am." Replied Inuyasha.

"I don't know how you figure that, but you smell like a youkai to me." Commented Claire.

"Hey, you do!" said a tiny Kitsune, in a rather surprised and exclamatory tone after getting a whiff of Inuyasha's apparently new scent.

"Woah..." said Inuyasha in correspondence to this as he himself realized that his half-human scent had totally diminished.

And during all this, Kagome wished more and more that she had to ability to detect such specific scents. 'Ugh...I hope I can do that someday...' she thought with a sigh.

"Well I'll worry about that later. Right now we gotta go help Miroku get away from Naraku." Inuyasha said firmly, and in sudden realization of how much time they had wasted.

"Oh? Naraku has a friend of yours?" asked a curious Claire, as she finally wiped the last bit of blood off her lips.

"Yea, and we gotta get to him fast. God knows what that bastard spider'll do to 'em." He said with a bit of urgency detected within his voice.

"I'm sorry, had I known I would've freed and brought him here with me." She said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it, there's a good chance Naraku knew what you'd do once you found us, and he's probably got something planned. Curse him." Growled an angry wolf.

Everyone rushed to the tent to gather their things and prepare for combat.

Claire gathered her strength, and did her best to follow.

"Hey...Inuyasha?" said the cat, in a weak sounding tone.

"Yea, what's wrong?"

Claire's reply was given by her body, which fell to the ground and slammed to a halt when it met the dirt, rendering her unconscious.

"Oh great." Inuyasha sighed. "I guess put a little too much into it when we fought" he concluded "but how was I to know things'd go this way?" he grunted, as he observed poor Claire's motionless body.

"Now what?" Kagome questioned, as she peered over poor Claire.

"Now we wait. She's the only one here who knows the current location of Naraku. No sense wandering around aimlessly when she can tell us exactly where to go."

"Okay, that's fine with me." Said the young miko. "How long do you think she'll be out?"

"I doubt it'll be too long, I didn't hit her all that hard." He said, with what sounded like enjoyment as he recalled the memory.

"Off topic," interrupted Sango. "so, Inuyasha, what do you think of Claire?" she continued

"I'm not sure what to think of her yet. I just met her a few minutes ago." He replied.

"Yes, I feel the same way." Commented the slayer. "How about you, Kagome? What do you think of her? Don't hold back anything, she's out cold over there, and won't hear a word of this." Sango said with a giggle.

"I don't really know what to think either," she began "I just know she better not betray Inuyasha in a critical moment out there."

"Don't worry about that happening." Inuyasha assured.

"Oh please, you mean to tell me that YOU of all people trust her all ready?" commented Kagome, as she turned her head towards Inuyasha, with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Of course not. But I know she meant what she said, because cat youkai give off a very particular scent when they lie, for some reason. And I haven't smelt it since I've seen her." He said reassuringly.

"Oh" said Kagome in correspondence to this. Which in turn surprised Sango as well.

"I didn't know that..." said the ninja-warrior, more surprised than one would think.

"Well anyway, while she recovers I'm gonna go get some training in. I wanna be at my best when I take 'em on." Said Inuyasha.

"Ok, I think I'll do the same." Said Sango.

"Mind if I join you, Inuyasha?" asked Kagome, in realization that she herself had never really done martial arts to an insane degree.

Inuyasha pondered for a moment. "Yea, I guess that's fine." 'Probably best if she's with me anyway.' He thought. "Well let's do this, meet back here in an hour. I'd like it to be longer, but time's not on our side. If Claire's not up by the time I get back, then we can just head out for Naraku's and have Kirara carry her until she wakes up. and I are fighting again. But it started it! Bastard wouldn't let me post. Thanks for reading, review please if ya got a moment Sayonara, til next time.


	13. Pulling

It's funny, isn't it? Life..

Everything that makes sense, and everything that you've ever searched for, you finally find it.

And then it's gone..

You're smack back in square fricking one, with nothing to show for any of your tears. It's

like it was all a waste. A waste!

Inuyasha began to walk off from the camp site, knowing Kagome would quickly follow behind. He figured she was getting a few of those supplies from her era, which she insisted they needed but always seemed totally oblivious to the hanyou. What was it again? Soap? He tried to remember. She refused to admit he didn't need it, although he thought he did a pretty nice job of living for the past eight hundred and sixteen years without this supposed necessity.

Sure enough, he got around ten yards away from the site when he heard a certain miko call out

"Hey, wait up-"

She had put on some cotton baggy sweat pants, and was doing her best to lug her demon of a backpack along to try and catch up to Inuyasha. The sight of that horrid yellow bag always brought back some hard memories... Inuyasha thought to himself as he involuntarily rubbed the back of his skull.

The walk wouldn't be far, but it'd be awkward. There was something floating about in the atmosphere, everytime he looked back at Her face, whatever it was that was illuminating itself seemed to slap him cold in his mug. He just turned back and shut his eyes, crossed his arms and sported the "Inu look." The most stubborn of expressions imaginable, right there in front of Kagome. So incredibly stubborn and rare, you could probably make a buck or two by just submitting the idea of such a look.

And then the barrier was broken. Suddenly, as if a bucket of sub-zero ice water was dumped on his face after crawling around in the desert for fifteen days with nothing to drink, Kagome spoke to him.

"So wut'cha thinkin' about?" she asked meekly, with an attempted but failed cheerful tone. It took everything she had to muster up that line, she barely managed to clear her throat before embaressing herself with a 'half-question.'

Just like that, the silence was gone and all the pressure in the world that one could ever even hope to imagine was slammed smack dab onto a certain hanyou. What WAS he thinking about? Lately he wasn't even sure he knew. You gotta SAY something, you idiot! Then the pattern changed. 'Let's analyze it,' he thought. Was it hatred for something or someone? Was it lust? Lonliness? Fear? Determination? Sadness? Or was it something else...

There's a certain part of your mind that not even you wanna know about. It's just like that.. So wild. The un-tamed part of you, so to speak. Was that what he was thinking about? Or was he thinking IN it?

'What was I thinkin' about again?'

And then there it was again. It.. That noise. That collection of sound waves and vibrations that composed what people call a voice; and this particular voice was of that someone that can turn your world upside down or give you the fulfillment of your heart. Or was it? He figured his mind would be clear by now, no more mystery. Honestly, "What AM I thinking about?" he said aloud.

"Um.. I dunno." Kagome giggled. "That's what I just asked you."

She neglected to mention that she asked it twice, but it mattered not.

"Oh, yea. Right." he said, gathering his mind. 'That was weird.' he thought to himself. "You know, I'm really not sure what I'm thinking about. I guess that's kinda weird, huh?"

The girl giggled again. That beautiful giggle. Everything was okay. That giggle was worth killing an army, gettin your arm cut off n' losin part of an ear just to hear it once before you die. "I don't think that's weird at all.. I guess I feel the same way." she said with a smile.

They both chuckled a bit. If felt good to laugh with her. They were both confused, neither of them really knew how to go about the conversation, but nonetheless.. It was very 'at-easing.'

Not much was said the rest of the way, the majority of what was spoken was taken up by Kagome quietly humming to herself. A familiar song.. So soothing, so calm. It makes the day go away.. What was it about her this time? Was there something different? Something new? Or had he just never noticed this about her before.. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he suddenly had a new appreciation for her presence. He had never really paid attention to her voice when she sang.. How could he not? That's a dang crime.

"..Kagome..." he whispered under his breath. He didn't realize what he was saying, but it suddenly hit him in the face when he did, and he hoped to something high that she didn't hear it.

"Yes..?" she whispered back.

'#&! She heard it. Of all the-" he flamed in his mind.

Kagome suddenly realized something was wrong. Something was wrong with Him.

It's that familiar moment, like so many others. Like something cold and hard is gripping your stomach and it won't let go. It just keeps pulling.

"Inuyasha what's wrong?" she asked hastily, suddenly beginning to break a small sweat.

She waited a moment for His response, but recieved none. It just, keeps, pulling

"Inuyasha?" she called out frantically.

The youkai turned and looked her in the eyes, staring blankly into them. The miko's thoughts were lost in his bright crimson stare, these eyes told so many stories, so many things, so many lives, so many sins, so many, so many had been recorded by these eyes, forever locked away in the seal of a youkaic mind. He said nothing. He just stared. Just stared.

It.Just.Keeps.Pulling.

Silence.

"Inuyasha, please, say something to me." all joking was thrown aside into the wind, this was now serious.

"Kagome" he said, staring blankly into the world

"What? What is it? Please, please say something." she had dropped her backpack and sprinted over to him.

"I'm not-" "SAY SOMETHING." Inuyasha began, but Kagome cut him off.

"..I'm sorry..." she meekly apologized, as his gaze penetrated her mind. He could see inside her head. She was convinced. But why? What does all this mean? What does anything mean? What means? So many questions in this world. None too far from the others.

He gathered himself in almost a stance, legs spread about shoulder length and knees slightly bent, arms moving about, ready for something. He looked around and turned in the opposite direction, staring hard into the forest. Kagome almost felt sorry for whatever it was that made eye contact with him. That was one frightening stare.

"Inuyasha, I need to hear you tell me something." It was beginning to get to her. She needed Him to tell her it was all going to be okay. Just a few minutes ago everything was normal, for the most part. But now suddenly, this world was completely flip turned upside down.

"Inuyasha? Inuyasha!" She called out again and again. "I need you to tell me that"

What! Tell her WHAT! What in all the HELLS was she talking about? He grabbed hold of her shoulders and gazed into her eyes. "Kagome, what? What is it?"

She began to cry.

"No, not that. Don't cry" he said frantically, as he began looking up and down her body like she was an explosive.

He opened his eyes and was shocked at the smell of bark. It was tree bark, and it was everywhere. All over his face, and some of it was in his hair. He brought his hand up and began wiping it off; licked his hand and used it to wipe the remaining sticky-ness off of his forehead. "What the-"

He sat up, and looked at the trunk of this monstrosity of a tree and realized that the indentations in it were from him banging his head against it. He had been laying on the ground, grasping the trunk, and slamming his head into it. What in the world?

He stood up and turned around, and suddenly his ears perked up. 'KAGOME.' his mind screamed.

There she was, she was huddling herself on the ground, arms grasping her pressed-together-knees and head hidden behind them. She was crying.

Crying.

Kagome was crying.

He ran over to Her. "Kagome what's wrong?"

"Just say it's okay... tell me you're okay, tell me it's okay." she said through hiccupped cries.

Some hidden instinct within his mind took over.. Everything was on autopilot now. "Kagome... everything's going to be okay."

She sprung up from where she was sitting and dove into his arms. She hugged him fiercely, slammed her head into his broad chest and cried tears that made him want to kill someone. She used his kimono and his chest to suppress her cries.. He could feel the vibration of her voice channeling itself through him.

"Kagome..." his thoughts were shrouded in wonder. "Kagome... what is wrong?" he asked firmly.

"Please, don't ever, ever do that again. I can't handle it." she seemed to even beg.

'Do what again?' was what he wanted to say, and it almost found its way rolling off of his tongue, but he knew that wasn't what she needed to hear right now. Autopilot was still in service, and he spoke. "Never again."

She looked up at his face from her spot on his chest, and hugged him even tighter. "Thanks." she said, smiling warmly.

He held her firmly in his arms, it was something he'd never done before. He reached around to her lower back and grasped her closely to himself.

And then just like that...just...like...that.

"So um... wut'cha thinking about? I asked ya three times, you never responded. Is everything okay?" Kagome asked cheerfully, oddly enough for a question of this nature. And it was then, when Inuyasha looked up and realized he had been staring into the forest. '...was that all... just a dream?' he thought to himself.

"Kagome, we need to go back to the camp and talk to Sango. This is very important." he said with a firm tone, showing quite a bit of seriousness in what he was saying.

Kagome looked up at him and was suddenly very aware of something wrong. "O-okay." she said in a rather frightened tone. "Is everything alright?"

"I'm not sure.. I need to talk to either that flea or the old hag. I bet they can tell me what's going on." he replied.

"'Going on'?" asked a confused miko.

"I know this is weird.. please just trust me on this one." he said calmly.

"Alright... I trust you, Inuyasha."

Weeee I'm a psycho

I haven't written in quite a while, I'm sure plenty of you hate me. It's fun to express the ridiculous dimensions of my mind. As you can see, I've become a different person, I suppose you could say. Death Metal will do that to ya (b)b anyways that's it, I hoped you like it. If not, stop reading. b


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